


Don't Take My Sunshine Away

by Jaaliyah



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AU, Childhood Friends, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Flashbacks, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Hospitals, Idiots in Love, Injury, Sad with a Happy Ending, Useless Lesbians, simping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-03 21:44:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 40,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20459960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaaliyah/pseuds/Jaaliyah
Summary: It’s the end of May when Regina and Emma are involved in a car crash that leaves Emma in critical condition, fighting for her life. Regina, who's only mildly injured, struggles to keep her hope alive for both her and six year old Henry's sake, but as the time goes by and the hours turn into days, and the days turn into weeks it’s not looking too good for Emma. Regina starts to lose any hope she had of Emma waking up. That is until she meets her new neighbor that moves in next door. Will her new neighbor be able to help her adjust to what's going on around her or will Regina give up before Emma's body does?





	1. Don’t Take My Sunshine Away

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Don't take my sunshine away](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20476925) by [Laura_p_g](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laura_p_g/pseuds/Laura_p_g). 
  * Inspired by [don't take my sunshine away [art]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20223976) by [oceansregina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/oceansregina/pseuds/oceansregina). 

> Thank you guys so so much for taking the time to read this. My Beta and I worked so hard on making this story enjoyable for you all. This fic is our baby and we love it so much. I wanna give a special shout out to my unofficial cheerleaders bc the ones assigned to me never came through. So Liz, Netty. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you to Carol for letting me use one of your incorrect swanqueen quotes. You're a real one. Also again, thank you so much to my beta who still despite her busy schedule found time to always help me. I hope you enjoy what I have in store for you. Buckle up! My Twitter is @_jaaliyah :p

“I see we have a new face in here on this marvelous spring Thursday. Welcome, I’m Doctor Archibald Hopper.” He extends a hand out for me to shake but I only stare.

“Right, well. Welcome to the group.” He does his best to muster up a smile, his teeth casually coming into view, so I gave him a small one in return.

I walk into the bright room with minimal windows with few posters hanging, and out of the ten seats that were laid out, only two had been filled. I clear my throat as I make my way over towards the furthest chair away from the two people sitting there. One was occupied by a tall brunette with red streaks randomly placed through her messy hair, and the other by an older man, the hairs on his face and head all white. I sit down and place a shaky hand on my stomach, focusing on breathing in and out without causing myself to hyperventilate.

“How about we start with our names and why we’re here. I’ll start. I’m Doctor Archibald Hopper, a licensed volunteer therapist here to help you get through the tough time you all must be having” He looks at each of us, studying our faces before he looks in the opposite direction of my chair and nods at the woman, prompting her to begin. As my attention falls on her I begin to take in her features. She was noticeably young, maybe in her late twenties, who wore an interesting amount of red and black. Her voices was pitchy as she spoke.

“Hello, I’m Ruby Lucas, I’m Eugina Lucas’ granddaughter and waitress at Granny’s diner and my granny’s had her 3rd stroke in the past few months.” Hopper smiles at the brunette before his eyes sweep over to the older man.

“Hi, I’m Gepetto, and my boy has leukemia.” When he finishes his introduction everyone looks at me, curious eyes awaiting an explanation and I take a deep breath and speak.

“I’m Regina Swan-Mills, I’m thirty five, I’ve been a doctor here for four years and my wife of ten years has been in a coma for seventeen days.” Hopper shoots a gracious smile our way and looks at his clipboard before he moves on.

“I’m very sorry to hear about the struggles your loved ones are going through right now. I’d like you guys to try and do your best to tell me how this has made you feel.” He rests his back on the chair and crosses his legs, waiting for somebody to speak.

“It’s hard.” The brunette was the first to speak up. “She’s all the family I got left. My parents died in a car accident when my parents got behind the wheel intoxicated when I was five. Not only did they kill themselves that night, but another family as well. My granny was the only relative I had left. It was hard at first, living with her I mean, she was always screaming at me, yelling at me for not doing what I was told, so naturally I did everything I could to annoy her and get under her skin but then something changed. I think it had to have been around the age of six. She showed me a side she very rarely showed. She was so gentle and caring as she tried to get me better. She would sit by my side almost all day and read to me, telling me stories from her childhood, and she just truly made me feel like she cared. Like I wasn’t some pity child she was forced to take care of. I remember this as the first time we bonded. I asked her why she hated me and her exact words were “I don’t hate you, in fact I only want to see you thrive Ruby. Your parents died because they were foolish enough to get behind the wheel. And I’ll be damned if I lose another person because of foolish neglect.” You can hear the pain coating her voice as she carries on. “I can’t lose her, I won’t lose her.” The brunette goes quiet again and Hopper just nods, his eye sweeping towards the older gentleman next to her.

“My son, I just love him so much. There isn’t much I can say. He’s so young. He was the miracle baby. His momma and pappa? We are old, this was our last chance to have a kid, and we took it, and for awhile everything seemed to be falling into place. Sure we we’re older than most parents, but that doesn’t affect our ability to love. He was a healthy, happy and energetic child, he loved having fun and playing but when he was around the age of five we started noticing some changes. He was tired all the time, started getting pale and weaker. He began to lose weight and his usually big appetite began disappearing. We took him to the doctor’s where he was examined and tested and after a week of tests and imaging, we were given the diagnoses.” He sniffs. “ Our little boy, our little Pinoc has acute lymphocytic leukemia.” The older man stops and tries to take a breath to prevent from crying but it becomes obvious he lost when his head falls into his hands and his desperate cries eco through the room. Archie walks over to the man and places a comforting hand on his shoulder before turning to me.

“I guess its my turn. My wife, Emma, was in a car accident. We both were.” I look down at the floor and rub the scar forming above my eye and I sigh.

“She was messing around while she was driving me to work. Here at the hospital.” I scoff at the irony and continue to tell the story. “We were trying to save money on gas so we decided to just start car pooling. We had just pulled out of our driveway and we were less than half-way there when I noticed she was not wearing her seatbelt.

______

_“Emma? Why isn’t your seatbelt on?”_

_“Oh shit. I forgot.”_

_“Well do us all a favor and put it on.”_

_“What if I don’t want to?” She said looking at me teasingly._

_“Emma. You’re the deputy. Set an example.”_

_“I’ll put it on if you give me a kiss.” She smirked._

_“No. Just drive you idiot, we’re gonna be late. And put on your seatbelt, then maybe you’ll get a kiss if we ever get to the hospital.”_

_“Come on Regina. This is the slowest town ever. Nothing’s gonna happen.”_

_“WE COULD CRASH.”_

_She smiled at me and pressed the gas down a little more making the car go just a bit faster._

____

“But that’s all it took you know? It took one seemingly harmless joke to put us both in the hospital. Which was stupidly ironic and aggravating since we were already headed there. She ran a red light without noticing and slammed into the rear side of a pickup truck. She- she got it the worst ya know? I ended up with a broken arm,” I gestured at my cast in the sling “a deep laceration through my eyebrow, some minor spleen damage and a busted lip. But she, she got a broken rib that punctured her lung, a broken arm, and a broken leg along with a head injury that sent her into a coma. She flew forward out of her seat and slammed into the glass.” I could feel my cheeks burning a grow quiet, in hopes to deflect the attention off of me.

Hopper looks at me with a painful expression written across his face unsure of what to say and the room falls silent for a couple of minutes as he writes on his clipboard before he looking around the room and nods a quiet ‘thank you’ to everyone. “I’m sorry to hear that and my thoughts and prayers are with you and your loved ones, but I have one more question to ask you guys. Do you guys have anyone you can talk to at home? A parent? A sibling perhaps? Maybe even a friend or a co-worker?”

“My best friend is staying with me while we wait for Granny to come home.” The younger girls pipes up, her voice almost squeaking.

“My wife, she died a year ago, that little boy’s all I really have, but I do have an old friend I could reach out to.” Hopper nods again and looks in my direction, his eyebrows raised in expectancy of an answer.

“No, we have a six year old boy Henry, but what am I supposed to do? Cry on his shoulder? Tell him mommy thinks his momma is gonna die? I can’t put all this on him. It’s been hard enough on him as it is.” I grumble, tucking my left arm behind my cast.

“Yes you’re right, we wouldn’t want that.” He chuckles in an attempt to lighten the room, but when he realizes he was unsuccessful he moves on. “Well, what about your parents? Or Emma’s perhaps?”

“My father’s dead and my mother moved all the way to California and isn’t so invested in my well being. As for Emma, her adoptive mother died two years ago from a heart attack.” I retort, expressing a clear disinterest in the topic of family.

“Any friends? Surely there is somebody. Someone here at the hospital maybe? I’m sure you could talk to a coworker.”

“Emma’s my best friend. I haven’t spoken to the only person who could be considered my friend in three years. You’ll find I’m a very private person Mr.Hopper resulting in me not being the most sociable person, so no I don’t have any friends to talk about this with. But Emma? Emma could light up an entire room. She could always be the life of the party. She does have a few friends but I don’t think I’d be comfortable putting myself out there and calling them.”

“Don’t you think her friend or friends deserve to know? Being vulnerable in a time like this isn’t something to be ashamed of Regina.”

“I guess.” I mumble.

“Good. Okay with that settled I need you guys to make sure you reach out to your respective persons and for homework I need you guys need to come up with a coping method.” He stood up out of the chair and glanced at the clock. _4:30._

“I’ll see you all back here next Wednesday, 3:30 on the dot.” He stands by the door and waits for us to all file out of the room before he pulls the heavy door behind him. He gives us each a sympathetic smile and I only return the smile with a thin smile before walking towards a secluded hallway. I will not be coming back.

The woman I have to call is Emma’s closest friend, Mary Margaret. I can’t stand that woman. They met at college through their classes during the first year and the three years after that they were roommates and stuck together ever since. Every time she’s around me with her sickeningly sweet smile, high pitched voice, and her constantly optimistic demeanor I just want to put her in a choke hold. Nobody’s that nice. I wince at the thought of having to call this woman, to let her in my life and to let her see me at my worst. I walk toward the elevator in the far back and press the button for the 4th floor with my left arm. I walked to room AO3, which was where Emma was admitted and I stand outside the door. I wait there for what seemed like forever until I finally got the nerve to pull out my phone from my pocket and pull up a contact that reads “Mary”. I let out a soft groan before my finger hits the call button. The ringing only lasts a second before there’s a voice on the other line.

“Hello? Regina?” She calls. _Of course she’d answer right away._

“Yeah, It’s me.”

“Hi! What can I do for you?” Her draining amount of enthusiasm pours out as she asks the question. Her voice is high like that of a princess and it gives me even more of an incentive to dislike her.

“I just wanted to let you know that me and Emma were in an accident two weeks ago.”

“Oh goodness! Are you guys okay?” She squeaky voice asks worriedly.

“I’m fine now but Emma, she’s been in a coma for about seventeen days.”

“Oh God. How’s Henry? How are you taking this? Do you need me to bring anything? She asks one question after the other and before I can answer any of them I hear her call to someone in the background.

“David, Emma’s in a coma. We’re gonna go to the hospital. Pack an overnight bag.” Without catching a breath she continues on. “I’m sorry for cutting you off Regina. Please speak.”

“Well, Henry’s doing the best he can I guess, I don’t really know. He’s not talking much about it. As for me, I don’t really know. I think I’m handling it well? It just sucks being a doctor and not even being able to help ya know?” I do my best to keep my personal feelings out of the conversation and only tell her what needs to be said.

“I’m so sorry Regina. So did you want me to bring anything?”

“If it’s not too much can you just bring me a coffee? I’m getting sick of the decaf shit they have over here.”

“Sure, we’ll be on our way as soon as possible.”

“Thank you, bye.” I hang up the call before she could speak and walk into the private room were Emma lays stagnant. Her left arm wrapped in a cast and her right foot wrapped in a cast as well, only difference in the position was that her foot was elevated. The top of Emma’s forehead had been bandaged up to prevent further bleeding. Rogue strands of blonde hair laying all through the pillow.

I feel awful as the day goes by and I watch as nurses and doctors come in and out of Emma’s room checking her, making sure her vital signs are stable, as well as checking her reflexes and cleaning her. Every time they would come out they would always tell me they’re hopeful and that being stable is always a good sign.

I sit down next to Emma’s bed and gaze at her face as the blonde curls rest next to her head in a tangled mess. My eyes travel to look at the IV that made her hand its residence and the breathing mask that hovered over her mouth. I couldn’t stand being in that room for more than five minutes before I had to get up and walk into the bathroom, slowly closing the door. In the bathroom was a basic sink and toilet and a small shower with a chair resting next to it. I walk over to the chair and I sit on it, putting my face in my hands and trying my best to keep it together. I could feel a familiar stinging sensation in my eyes as the tears force their way out and they slide down my face as if to mock me. I feel my breathing start to hitch as the quiet sobs begin to form in my throat. Despite my best attempts to quiet them they gradually grow too loud for me silence and I move my hand over my mouth, resting my broken arm over my stomach as I let everything out.

After a few minutes or so I force myself up off the small chair because my bottom was cramping and I stagger towards the sink and start to lightly splash water on my face, doing my best to eliminate any evidence of my breakdown and I look myself up and down in the mirror. My hair’s a mess, my clothes are ratty and my makeup’s smudged. I attempt to pat my hair down with my one free hand before I smooth down my T-shirt and wipe off what little makeup I had left and look at myself with disgust. This wasn’t me. I never wore yoga pants out of the house or a t-shirt for that matter. The real me wore blouses and pencil skirts and always wore pumps no matter how much the hurt my feet. I have to be professional at all times.My hair was always brushed to perfection and my makeup was always done neatly. When reality hits I turn away from the mirror and sigh. I fell a hiccup forming which is what happens when I cry and I groan. At this point I know it’s going to be a long day.

  
I stalk out of the bathroom and once again stare at the woman laying before me. I watch as her chest rose and fell. In that bed lay the woman to whom I vowed to love and to cherish, to be there through the good and the bad. But with Emma there was no bad. We have this dynamic that a lot of couples, even married couples don’t have. She’s always been there. She made me feel immortal. “No matter what, we’ll get through it together Regina.” She’d always say. But now, I feel alone. Alone with an six year old boy who misses his momma and his best friend. My attention pulls away from the blonde when I hear voices outside the door.

“This is the room they told us Emma’s in.”

“Then why is it so dark?”

“I don’t know David. Let’s just go in and check on Regina.”

I glare as the door knob slowly turns and the light from the hallway comes flooding in. A small pixie haired woman and a taller blonde man walk through the threshold with warm smiles and it immediately falls as their eyes fall straight on my arm.

“You didn’t say anything.” She says, a disappointing tone looming behind the obvious concern.

“Well, technically I’m fine. It’s healing. There’s not much we can do about it.” My gaze falls back on Emma and I release a low sigh.

“How are you holding up sweetie?” The woman questions, once again taking my attention away from the woman laying in the bed.

“As best as I can.” I reply, looking over to the man standing slightly behind Mary Margret and I offer a small smile.

“Regina you remember David.” He returns the smile with a sympathetic smile of his own and hands me one of those vases filled with flowers that you can find at the gift shop downstairs and I thank him with a gentle nod before I set them down next to Emma’s bed.

“Here’s your coffee.” Mary Margaret coos, holding out a cup with visible steam seeping out of the hole in the lid.

“Great. Thanks.” I grab the coffee and take a small sip. The coffee tastes like it had just been freshly brewed and smells liked cacao.

“How did you-?”

“You know Emma talks about you a lot and I have an excellent memory.” She beams. I smile thankfully and I take another sip of the coffee made just how I like it. Black with a dash of cacao powder.

“We’re so sorry we weren’t here. We were visiting the countryside and we left our phones here. We didn’t think anyone would actually need to get a hold of us. We told Emma we were leaving our phones here. We did leave her the phone number of the house we were staying in. But you wouldn’t know that unless Emma told you.” She adds. Realizing how what she said might have come off the wrong way, David attempts to fix it. “It was foolish for us to leave them. We would’ve come back sooner.” He starts to ramble and his words start to clump together and Mary Margaret laces her fingers through his and you can see him calm down and catch his breath. “We just got back earlier this morning. We came back to a couple of missed calls from the station. We thought it was just Ruby, or one of the new hires complaining so we just decided to wait until tomorrow to handle everything. Then you called and we just dropped everything.” David says.

“Well you’re here now. That’s all that matters.” I motion for them to follow me away from the door and I lead them to the right side of Emmas bed. On that side there was a large cot that I slept on most nights, resting under a window. I clear off blanket and wipe away anything else that didn’t belong and we all sit down.

“So how did it happen?” The smaller woman asks.

I began to retell the accident to the couple stopping only when one of them made a comment or to catch my breath. After talking about Emma and her injuries some more Mary Margret thought it was a good idea to try and take my mind off Emma so we moved on to talking about how each other’s lives were going. I guess we were “catching up”. Mary Margaret and David were planning on trying for a kid soon so they’re going to move out of their small little apartment building into a house closer to the countryside which is part of the reason they were gone. They were house hunting. She mentioned her plans to take a full year off from teaching fourth graders when the baby is born.

David also mention that he’s going to start working part time. He talked about how he was planning on promoting Emma to Sheriff and tells me how Emma was basically already Sheriff the way she was running things when he wasn’t there, and that she’d be doing the same things she’s been doing but with less paper work and more time patrolling and obviously a higher pay. As he spoke about the promotion my mind began to drift back towards Emma and the current state she was in, which led my mind to travel even more and I thought about her not waking up and how the promotion would be useless. I have to shake away the thought, trying to hold onto the last bit of hope I still had and I rejoin the conversation.

“Regina?” Mary Margaret calls.

“I’m sorry what? I think I zoned out.”

“I asked if you told Cora yet.” I shudder at the name. I haven’t talked to my mother since she moved to California after having a fit when I decided to become a doctor instead of getting into politics. That was way back during my second year of college. I get the occasional card or two but that’s about it. I’ve tried to reach out but she always says she’s busy, so I gave up.

“No. And I’m not going to.”

“Are you still upset about the wedding?”

“I’m not upset she didn’t come. It’s just like Cora Mills to only care about herself. I’m upset she hasn’t made an effort to meet Henry. It’s not like I haven’t told her about him. She knows. She’s his grandmother for God sakes.” I take another sip of the now room temperature coffee and I look at the clock hanging above the door. _5:08._

“I’m sorry, would you mind if I left to go pick up Henry from daycare? I think I’m gonna take him home and stay with him a bit. I’ll call the babysitter and I should be back in less than 3 hours.”

“Are you sure you can drive like that?” David asks.

“Sure. It’s not that far.”

“How do you know?” She asks.

“I’m a doctor you guys. I think I know what I’m talking about. I’ll be fine. How else would Henry get home? I don’t have friends and his babysitter doesn’t drive. ” I say dryly, watching as their cheeks go red from the embarrassment. “Like I said, I’ll be back in a couple of hours. Will you be okay on your own?”

“Regina,” Mary Margaret says softly. “We can stay with Emma. We packed an overnight bag. You can go home and sleep in your own bed. How long has it been since you slept in your own bed? Since you’ve just spent time with Henry? I’m sure he’s tired of baby sitters and just wants to be with you.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, you need a comfy bed more then we do.”

“I suppose. If you’re sure. But I’ll be back first thing in the morning after I drop Henry off at school.” I say grabbing my purse and my phone.

“Okay Regina.” Mary Margaret smiles and nods at me as I walk towards the door.

“If anything happens you call me. My phone’s on.”

“Yes Regina.”

“Better yet, just call me around 9.”

“Regina.” She calls dryly.

“I’m going I’m going.” I call walking out the door. “Don’t forget to call!”

“We won’t! Now go!”

I close the door behind me and scurry towards Emma’s little bug and I set my bag on the passenger seat. I place my hand on the wheel and I suck in a deep breath. Emma’s had this car since she was sixteen. I was there when she got it. So many memories were created in this car. Many were made in the back seat to be exact.

______

_“This one Ingrid!” She shouted excitedly jumping up and down._

_“Are you sure Emma?” I asked nervously. I peered back at the car and I gulped. It was absolutely hideous._

_“Yes. It’s so cute and yellow’s my favorite color. Oh please Ingrid.” She begged as she clasped her hands together pleadingly._

_Ingrid looked at me with a lopsided smile and I knew all too well she agreed with me. She shrugged . “If that’s the one you want Em I don’t see why not.”_

_Emma squealed so loud that I thought I’d be going deaf at 18. She ran up to Ingrid and pulled her into the tightest and longest hug I’ve ever witnessed Emma give her and the look of love mixed with adoration on Ingrid’s face said it all._

_Emma didn’t hug much back then._

_Ingrid paid for the car after fourth five minutes of signing documents and writing checks and told Emma she could take the car out but she had to be home in an hour for dinner. Emma nodded excitedly and promised she’d be home on time before turning to me and giving me a devilish smile._

_“Ohhhhh no. I am not getting in that.”_

_“Come on!”_

_“Emma look at it. It’s basically a coffin on wheels.”_

_“It’s not that bad.” She said smiling._

_“I can see it now, my headstone saying “killed by metal a banana.”_

_“Please?” Her eyes pleaded with me._

_Eventually I did give in and get into the car but not without promising Emma that if she killed me in this car, when I see her in the afterlife I’m gonna murder her._

____

I give myself a moment before I put the car in drive and start driving towards Henry’s school. In less than ten minutes I’m at StoryBrooke Academy and I pull into a space in front of the school. I get out the car making sure to leave my purse but grab my phone and I’m on my way inside. It only takes two turns down the narrow hallways for me to reach Henry’s day care. I walk through the door and I spot Henry in the back, by himself, huddled in a corner trying to read a book.

“Henry, let’s go sweetie.” I call from behind the counter.

He looks up from his book and quietly gets up and makes his way towards me grabbing his backpack, stuffing the book in his bag.

“I hope you don’t mind.” Says one of the teachers, taking my attention off Henry. Her vibrant red hair stares me in the face and I forget what’s going on for a quick second.

“Excuse me?” I question.

“The book. I said he could take it home and bring it back whenever he finishes. I thought he could use a pick me up.” I internally curse myself when I realize that everyone and their mothers know what happened. I hate other people knowing my business. Especially stuff like this.

In an attempt to end the conversation I call for Henry again, waving my hand for him to come quicker. “Yes, I Suppose. Come now Henry. Let’s go home.” I extend my hand towards the younger boy which he willingly accepts and I lead him out the room and back down the hall I came from. “Did you have a good day mijito?”

“Are you gonna leave me with Grace again mommy?” His voice wavers as we walk outside through the door. I look at him and watch the tears trickling down his cheek and I bend down and brush the hair out of his eyes before I squeezed his shoulders.

“No my little prince. I’m gonna stay home with you.” I pull him into a hug, minding my sling, and run my hand up and down his back whispering “I’m so sorry.” And “I love you” in his ear.

After we both manage to calm down we get into the bug and we’re on our way home. Henry finally opens up a little and tells me about his day and how his best friend Violet was absent today. Considering the house was less than ten minutes away it was a surprise that didn’t take long for the backseat to get quiet. I look through the rear view mirror and see his brown hair falling down in front of his head as it hangs and I chuckle to myself.

We pull into the driveway and I take a few seconds to sit and plan out how I’m going to get him inside. Usually he’s awake and unbuckles himself but not this time. I get out the car and make my way into the house to set my purse down on the kitchen table before I go back outside for Henry. I slowly open his door and unfasten his seatbelts, careful not to wake him knowing he could really use a nap. I wrap his tiny legs around my waist, propping his head over my shoulder and I gently pull him forward with my left arm snaked around his waist. This works for a second until he starts slipping.

“Would you like some help?” A voice calls from behind me with a slight British accent.

I hesitate for a moment as I turn around, not knowing who this woman was.

“I’m sorry If I scared you. I’m your new neighbor Zelena Greene. I moved in a couple of days ago. I’ve seen your car pull up but every time I think of introducing myself you’re already back into the car.” She chuckles.

“Oh, nice to meet you. I’m Regina Swan-Mills, this is Henry, and yes if you wouldn’t mind I could use some help. I’m about to drop him.” I awkwardly chuckle.

As the other woman carefully wrapped Henry around her I got to have a better look too. Her most noticeable feature was her fiery red hair that sat in messy curls around her shoulders and back. After my little check, and coming to the conclusion that if she were to try and pull anything crazy, I know I could take her and that hitting her with my cast would easily stop her from potentially abducting my child. I’m a fast runner, I think to myself. I point towards the open door and she slowly walks up the step, and I follow close behind her keeping a close eye on the sleeping boy.

“Where would you like him?” She whispers.

“Right through that room on the love seat if you don’t mind. I should wake him up soon for dinner but for now I’m going to let him rest.”

Zelena walks over to said couch and rests Henry’s head on pillow before she walks over to meet me in the kitchen and greets me with an extended hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you. You have a lovely house.”

“Thank you. It’s a pleasure to meet you as well. I’m sorry. I’ve been so busy I didn’t even know we had new neighbors.” I shake my head and offer an apologetic smile.

“It’s alright dear, I see you rush off almost everyday. I figured it was something important. What do you do?”

“Oh, well I’m a doctor. And yourself?”

“An interior decorator.” She says taking a glance around the around the walls of the kitchen.

Feeling slightly self conscious having an interior decorator in our house I try and divert the conversation. “Where are my manners, make yourself at home. Can I make you a cup of coffee?”

“Tea if you don’t mind.” I acknowledge her choice and watch as she walks off to the living room and sits on the other couch across from Henry.

“So how long have you lived here?” She calls.

“Um, all my life. This used to be my mothers house before she moved to California.” I grab the already seasoned chicken out the fridge and stare at it. I thank myself for seasoning it yesterday for the babysitter to cook for dinner today because I was too tired to try and cook anything. I would definitely start a fire. I preheat the oven and set the chicken in the pan before I turn towards the cabinet and I grab a pot for some rice. I gently remove the rice off the shelf in the pantry and fill the pot with water and rice before setting it over the stove. With that out the way I turn my attention back to the drinks.

“I see.”

I grab her drink once it’s finished brewing and walk it over to her. She gratefully accepts her drink and I’m back in the kitchen to retrieve my coffee and then I plop down next to her.

“So I assume you’re from England. Or somewhere in the UK?”

“You assumed correctly. This is my first time living out of the country so I’m a bit confused sometimes to say the least. If I’m being honest I still sometimes drive on the wrong side of the road.” She jokes.

“The U.S will do that to you. Also I will pray for whoever gets into your car.” I chuckle. After taking a sip of the coffee I set it back down and make my way back to the preheated oven. “Why did you move?” I call over my shoulder as I put the chicken in the oven and set the timer.

“Fresh start I guess. I’m getting old, I wanted to travel somewhere new before it was too late you know. I might just keel over.” I nod and walk back over to where she was sitting.

“You do not look a day over thirty. What do you mean?” I take a big gulp of coffee, inhaling the scent of the coffee, humming as it warms my insides.

“I’m forty, but thanks for the ego boost.” She says before she lets out a cackle. “But still, I’m getting up there. I never know when it’ll be my last day ya know?”

“I’m thirty five so you aren’t too far up there.” My demeanor quickly changes as I respond to the rest of the statement. “Yeah, I know the feeling.” I whisper. I watch as Zelena looks at me like she’s trying to figure out if she struck a nerve but she couldn’t quite figure out what it was so we sit in an awkward silence before she clears her throat.

“Right well, I assume you’re rushing off to save lives every time I see you then?” She asks quietly as she sips from the cup.

“Not exactly.”

“What do you mean?” She quirks her brow.

“I can’t exactly work with my arm like this.” I carefully lift the sling up for her to see and her eyes widen.

“Oh yes of course, silly me. What happened if I may ask?”

“I was in a car accident. I usually drive Henry home and wait for the baby sitter to come before driving off to the hospital.”

“Is someone there?”

“Yeah, my wife. She’s been in a coma for about two weeks. I called her friends today and they came to visit her. They told me I should stay home and get some real rest. Apparently I’m not the only one not getting enough sleep.” I say throwing my head in Henry’s direction. “His babysitter usually stays the night with him. She’s graduating in two weeks. So she’s out of school right now. Lucky for me.”

“I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine what you’re going through, but if you’re anything like me, which I think you are, you don’t like being pitied.”

“That’s correct.” I laugh. This laugh feels different. It feels healthy. Like a little bit of weight has been lifted. I haven’t been able to laugh like that since Emmas been in a coma. She was always the one to make me laugh and she did it so easily. Once again I have to bring the conversation back to a difficult topic and I sigh. “It just sucks you know? Being a doctor and you can’t even help the one you love.”

“I understand.” She opens her mouth to say something else but I cut her off.

“One second, I need to wake Henry up before it gets too late.”

“I guess that’s my cue.” She says standing up.

“Oh? You can stay for dinner if you like. I’m just making chicken.”

“That would be lovely. I’m a bit to lazy too cook. I would’ve just ended up ordering pizza for the fourth time this week.”

“Little advice. Don’t tell a doctor you’ve eaten four boxes of pizza in a week.” I call. She laughs as I walk over to the love seat and I gently crouch down, face to face with the sleeping boy, and I gently shake him

“Henry. It’s time to wake up.” He stirs slowly before turning his head the other way and snuggling to the pillow. “Mijo. Wake up.” I whisper in his ear.

“You speak Spanish?” She asks sounding intrigued.

“Barely. I know a total of like 5 words. My mother practically denounced our culture. I keep telling myself I’m gonna learn but as a mother, a wife and a doctor, when do I have time?” I chuckle facing Zelena. When I turn back around, Henry’s face is now facing back at me and his eyes are open. He quietly lets out a yawn.

“Hi momma.” He slowly sits up right before noticing the woman behind me and he noticeably takes an interest in the foreign woman behind me. “Who’s that?” He says pointing.

“Don’t point. That’s our new neighbor Zelena.”

“Hi hi.” He wipes the sleep out of his eyes as he gets off the couch and walks over to Zelena.

“Well hello there.”

“I’m Henry. I’m six!” He beams as he holds up six fingers.

“Alright Henry, settle down and go wash your hands before dinner. The chicken is almost ready.”

We share a laugh as Henry runs into the bathroom to wash his hands.

When he comes back we all make our way to the table and Henry sits in his assigned seat at the end of the five seat table across from me. There’s one chair at the end and two chairs on each side of the table. Where Henry sits is The Princes seat, as he likes to call it. Zelena comes around the right of my chair and pulls the chair out to sit but Henry stops her.

“Wait! That’s mommy’s seat!”

She looks at me and then back to Henry before she walks around the table and sits to my left.

“Remember your manners Henry. It’s not polite to yell.” I get up from my chair when the timer goes off and pull the chicken out of the oven and start cutting off pieces of the chicken for everyone and scooping up rice for their plates.

“Would you like something to drink?”

“Apple juice please!” Henry shouts.

“I wasn’t asking you silly. I know you want apple juice. Last time mijo, inside voice.” I politely warn.

“Wine if you have any.”

“Oh yeah, we have wine.” I laugh in a tone that says ‘wine is like my caffeine.” I pour everyone’s respected drinks and I pass them out before I go back and grab the plates.

“Thanks mommy.” He exclaims before he starts shoveling all the food into his mouth.

“The way he’s eating you’d think I was starving him.”

“This looks delicious Regina.” She smiles before taking a bite.

“Thanks. It’s so simple but my father used to make it for me.”

“Oh? Where is he now?”

“He died when I was eight. I don’t remember him very well. Only bits and pieces. He loved to cook, so I believe that’s where I got it from.”

“So how did you and-.” She pauses, blanking in confusion.

“Oh, Emma. I’m sorry I forgot to tell you. Her name’s Emma.”

“Ah yes. Very well. How did you and this Emma woman meet? Is she beautiful? What is she like?”

“Well-”

“Mommy is beautiful. She has super bright yellow hair that momma always says looks like a mop. And she has super green eyes like a lizard!” Henry cuts me off. “She’s probably a secret lizard” He adds nonchalantly.

“Your mother is not a lizard. But yes she is very beautiful. I married a winner. As for how we met, I was very against the idea of meeting her.” I laugh.

______

_“Go say hi.”_

_“I don’t want to mother.”_

_“I did not raise you to be rude. Ingrid is one of my closest friends. Now go over there and introduce yourself.”_

_“Yes mother.” I mumbled quietly to myself as I got up and made my way out the door, through both our gate and Ingrid’s, and knocked on her door. I stood there and waited in the warm July weather until someone I didn’t recognize opened the door. As the door had opened I saw a small green eyed little girl, with a mess of blonde curls sitting on her head. I froze and just stared when I saw her. She was not what I had been expecting. Standing before me was a young girl, not too much younger than myself._

_“Can I help you?” She asked dryly which snapped me out of whatever state I was just in._

_“Uh, um. Hi. I’m Regina. I live next door.” I pointed to the house on the left and gave her an awkward smile, unsure of what to say next._

_As I introduced myself Ingrid appeared behind her, laying a hand on her shoulder. I had noticed Emma sorta flinched at the contact but I decided to keep my mouth shut. I was pulled out of my thoughts when I heard Ingrid speak._

_“Oh Emma, that’s Coras daughter. The woman I told you about.” Emma. Her names Emma._

_“Oh.” Was all she let herself say._

_“Come in Regina.” Ingrid said smiling. Beckoning me into the house._

_I followed suit as we all entered the living room, where they had clearly been sitting due to the ungodly amount of chip bags resting on the floor._

_“Sorry about the mess, apparently Hot Cheetos are Emmas favorite food. She asked me for some on the way home and I couldn’t say no. I bought a whole case so feel free to take some home with you dear.” She turned away from me and was now facing Emma._

_“Emma dear, why don’t you show you Regina your room.” Emma only nodded and started walking towards the stairs. I’ve been over to Ingrid‘s house plenty of time so I knew exactly where I would be going. The only vacant room in the house that Ingrid once mentioned turning into a hobby room._

_When we reached the top of the stairs she looked back at me and whispered about how she didn’t have much so I shouldn’t get to excited. I nodded and gave a pitying smile before we walked into her room. She was right she didn’t have much but I was fascinated by her room. She had concert posters ranging from Stevie Nicks, to posters about musicals most of which I’ve never seen. I had my mother to thank for that. She had only one wall painted black, and there against the wall was her bed. As I continued to look around I saw a few small pictures of some kids posing with Emma. She looked like despite the circumstances she had had some fun. She did things and went to places I would never go. There was a picture of her on top of a roof sitting with some kids, there was one where she was dangling from a dangerous looking rope over some water. I continued to look around in silence and when I had seen all there was to see, I turned back to Emma._

_“I like your room.”_

_“Thanks.” She mumbled._

_“You don’t have to be so quiet. I won’t bite. I know I look mean but I get that from my mother.” I said making a silly face hoping to break the ice._

_This made her laugh and I could tell she was a bit more relaxed now._

_“So tell me about yourself. What are your likes and dislikes?”_

____

“We ended up spending hours laughing and talking about our favorite colors, hers being yellow, mine being black.” Zelena laughs and takes another bite of the chicken before pointing her fork at me. “I can see that.” I scrunch my nose and let out a little chuckle before I continue. “Anyway, before I was so rudely interrupted. We talked about our hobbies, and how we both hated the Jonas brothers for some reason I cant recall and before you know it I could hear Ingrid, Emmas’ mother, calling me and telling me my mother was calling me home.” I say smiling.  
____

_We hopped off the bed and walked down the stairs. I said my goodbyes to both Emma and Ingrid, thanking them for their hospitality and I stopped to give Emma a hug. She was hesitant at first but whatever was holding her back seemed to have dissolved and she melted into the hug. I told her I would see her again soon and that I’d go back to school shopping with her when my mother took me and lastly how I show her around school and where the classes she was taking would be. I said my final goodbyes one last time and left back to my house._

____

“What a cute story. So what happened after that?” Zelena asks.

“Well, to make a long story short, we ended up being best friends. We were inseparable. I guess our marriage was not a surprise. We did everything together.” “What about you? Any man or woman.”

“Nope. Just my dog Bella. Hoping I can shag someone here. She’s been a little dry lately.” She chuckles.

“She?” My face falls.“Oh that’s just disgusting!”

“What momma?” He mumbles curiously doing his best to talk with food in his mouth.

“Nothing sweetheart.” I answer sweetly before I look back at Zelena and give her a stern but playful eye roll. The more we talked the more I began to relax and feel comfortable in the presence of our new neighbor.

“Just being honest.” She cackles.

“Keep your honesty to yourself.” I allow a small giggle to escape before turning my focus onto my food.

An hour or two passes before it was time for Zelena to go. We said our goodbyes, exchanged phone numbers and then she was off. I made Henry go upstairs and take a shower while I cleaned off the table and washed the dishes. I tried my best to keep my mind on the tasks before me but my mind kept wandering to Emma. Anxiety spread through my body and I could feel myself hyperventilating. Tears made their way down my face. This is my first night away from Emma and so far I’m doing terribly. I leaned over the sink and tried to get my breathing back under control. It’s gonna be okay, its gonna be okay. I repeat that over and over again until I hear Henry call for me.

“STORY TIME MOMMA!” He calls from the top of the stairs.

“Ill be right up.” I call back.

I set the sponge down and walk up the flight up steps and walk into the room closest to ours. Henry is laying under his covers with his favorite green dinosaur smiling up at me. He hands me Little Red Riding Hood and for the next ten minutes I occupy him with silly voices, tickles, and bad acting. Once the story is done and over we say our nightly ‘I love yous’ and I give him his expected raspberry on the cheek and I turn off the light.

I stride down the hall and into my room and I turn on the light. Looking around the room I realize I haven’t really been in here since the accident. I just blindly grabbed some clothes, brushed my teeth, maybe did my hair and then left. Now I’m in here and about to sleep in this room for the first time by myself. I take a deep breath and walk into our bathroom. Evidence of Emma was all over. Her toothpaste is spilled on the counter and her hair stuff is left all over the counter. I smile to myself as I change into my pajamas, washing my face, and brushing my teeth before walking over to my side of the bed. I look at the now empty side and do my best to hold it together. I check my phone and I see that Mary Margaret texted me. Hey, Emma’s fine. Doctors say everything is still stable. I decided not to call because I know if I called you you’d try and find some reason to come down. Enjoy your night, we’ll still be here in the morning. I feel a small smile spread across my face, recognizing the compassion in the message and text back a simple ‘thank you’ before plugging it into the charger.

I slip under the covers and turn off the light and I just stare at the ceiling. I start to think back to memories with Emma to try and rid myself of this depressing feeling. Hoping that somehow happy memories will put me to ease.

______

_“How are you my little Emma?”_

_“Regina!” I braced for impact as the wide eyed blonde jumped on me._

_“How was your first day of fifth grade girly?” I asked._

_“It was fine, I’m pretty sure my math teacher is a vampire, but that’s a story for another time.” She says nonchalantly. I shook my head and laughed at the younger girl. She was so much more different than my other friends. She was so real and she had the biggest imagination and the brightest personality._

_“Regina?” She called._

_“Hmm?” I said not paying attention._

_“You’re kinda zonin’ out. Whatcha thinkin about?”_

_“Nothing. Just about how I’d love to hear your vampire theory.”_

_“Okay, so……”_  
____

I laugh to myself as I think about how in depth Emma went into her little theory. She spent a full thirty minutes describing the man who she believed to be a vampire. Emma’s always had an active imagination. Even now she still tries to convince me of foolish things. My mind wanders from the memory when I hear my door open and someone sniffling.

“Henry?” I call as I squint my eyes trying to make out where the black blob was. When I finally make out Henry’s shape he’s now standing at the foot of the bed.

“Momma are you gonna leave again?” Hearing Henry’s voice tremble breaks my heart and I pat the left side bed for him to come up and he snuggles into my side. I reach my hand up and stroke his cheek.

“No honey, momma’s gonna stay here. Tomorrow I’m gonna drop you off at school and head back to see mommy. Maybe you can come see her tomorrow. How does that sound?” I ask in hopes of bringing the sad boy’s spirits up.

“Okay momma.” He sniffs again.

“Did you know your mommy’s fifth grade math teacher was a vampire?” I say trying to lighten the mood.

“No way. Vampires aren’t real silly.” He giggles at the statement and snuggles further into my side.

“Ya huh. Your mommy told me.”

“I don’t believe you.” He says giggling as I lightly tickle his sides.

“When mommy wakes up you can ask her.”

“Okay.” Henry settles down and his breathing begins the slow and its evident he’s almost sleep.

“Good night my little prince.”

“Night momma.” He whispers half asleep.

That night turns out to be the first real night of sleep I’ve had in about a week.

____

I wake up early the next morning to Henry jamming his bony elbows into my side. When I check my clock it reads 7:10. Twenty minutes before my alarm was set to go off to get myself dressed before waking Henry up and I sigh. I stare up at the ceiling as I did my best to go back to sleep but Henry’s elbow keeps digging further and further into my side as he digs his body further into the grove of the bed. Eventually, I throw my legs over the edge of the bed and slip out the bed but not before tossing a glare in the direction of my son. I make my way towards the door. But I stop and take one last glance at the sleeping boy.

“Hell no. If I have to be awake so do you.” I murmur. I walk toward the side that Henry lays on and I reach across the bed and grab a pillow before I gently slam the pillow across his face. Immediately there’s an irruption of giggles.

“Morning momma.” He giggles and pushes the pillow off his face.

“Morning you little Monster.”

“Why we up early?” He says giving a questioning glance after he looks at the clock.

“Because your stinky elbow kept jamming into my side. If I have to suffer, so do you.” I say grabbing his little feet and yanking him slightly out the bed before he climbs down the rest of the way himself. His squeal echos through the house as I chase him through the halls.

We momentarily stop to safely walk down the steps because we do not run on the stairs, and we continue our little game of chase when we reach the last step. The game goes on for a few more minutes before I catch him and entrap him in a hug.

“Momma, ya squishin’ me!” He says giggling. I squeeze just a little harder to hear his squeals grow and I let him go. He immediately runs into the kitchen and starts to hop up and down, and run around in circles.

“My my, you sure do have a lot of energy today. Why is that?”

“I just missed you so so much.” He says as he runs and hugs me around the waist. I feel a sharp pain in my heart, really it’s my chest but it might as well be my heart. I was so concerned with Emma that I haven’t spent any real time with Henry let alone paid attention to him.

“I’m sorry love.” I grab Henry’s usual breakfast of knock off Apple Jacks. Henry claims they taste better but to me it just tastes like chalk. I pour his cereal into his assigned breakfast bowl that has the Avengers in it and place it on his assigned seating area. He’s a bit OCD when it comes to where he eats his food and what its served in. Emma thinks he gets that from me but I don’t think so.

“Henry?”

“Yeah?” He answers with a mouth full of cereal.

“Do you want to just spend the day with me? Maybe we could go to the park, get some ice cream? Then maybe see mommy? How does that sound?”

Henry pops out of his seat and once again starts to jump up and down but this time he pumps his fist up in the air at each ascension. “Yes! Oh please momma lets do it!”

“What do you say about inviting our new neighbor? Think she could use some friends?”

He runs into my waist giving me a quick hug screaming ‘yes’ before he runs back to his seat and finishes eating.

“Hey Hen, I’m gonna go call Mary Margret I’ll be right back.” He only nods in agreement while he continues to down his cereal. I walk past his seat and ruffle his hair before I enter the living room and dial Mary Margrets number.

“Hey Regina. How’d it go last night?”

“Good actually. I think we both needed that. Did I wake you?”

“That’s good to hear. No you didn’t wake me up. We got up around six thirty because a nurse woke us up so we went down to get breakfast at the cafeteria.”

“Oh must have been Jasmine. She can be loud from time to time. Anyway, well this is kinda last minute but Henry’s gonna skip school today and spend the day with me. I felt so guilty. So I won’t be by until later. I just thought I should tell you guys. You guys don’t have to stay there the whole time either, the doctors have my number, if anything happens they can call me.”

“That’s a great idea sweetie.” I grimace. _She’s like five years younger than me. Who is she calling sweetie?_

“Okay. So maybe I’ll see you guys later?”

“Okay. Sounds great.” Click.

“Well mister, looks like we’ve got ourselves a date.” Henry comes barreling towards the living room and grabs the tv remote settling onto the couch.

“Henry, I’m gonna pay Miss. Greene a visit. You stay right there and watch your cartoons. When I get back its gonna be time for you to get dressed and we’ll start getting ready to leave.”

I go upstairs and throw on some jeans and nice wrinkle free white T-shirt. I move on from my clothes and start applying a light layer of makeup, brush my teeth and hair and I’m all set. I slip on my tennis shoes, make my way back downstairs and tell Henry I’ll be back. I close and lock the door behind me before walking across my hard to the familiar house on the right. I take a look around the yard and notice that the pathway once surrounded my flowers was now surrounded by rocks. Little had been changed about that house. I walk up the pathway and the steps leading to the door and I knock.

“Regina. Hello.” I hear behind me. I swirl around and see Zelena holding a leash to what I assume was the dog she mentioned the day before.

“Oh, hi.” I walked down the steps to greet her. She smiles this bright smile and starts to walk towards me, bringing the once hidden dog into view.

“What can I do you for?”

“Well, Henry and I were wondering if you’d be willing to accompany us to the park. Figured you could use some friends.” I say sheepishly.

“I think you’re also lonely for some stimulating conversation. You’re just using me aren’t you.” She says as she pokes my shoulder.

“That too. The only adults I’ve talked to in the past few weeks were doctors, and while it is a stimulating conversation, it isn’t much fun. And Emma’s insufferably sweet friends make me wanna gag. So you’re right. I am just using you. The second I saw you, I thought ‘huh, wouldn’t it be nice to just use this woman for company?’.” I toss a playful smirk at Zelena and she just shakes her head disapprovingly.

“Well I’d be glad to join you. I can scout the locals and you can tell me who’s single and ready to shag.”

“Are you always this horny?” Her bright green eyes meet mine as she feigns hurt.

“Horny? Me? I’ll have you know I have a little friend to rid me of those feelings in my night stand.” That comment sends me over the edge and I’m laughing hard.

“This is the type of stimulating conversation I’d be missing?” I say wiping away the tears of laughter. She begins to walk up the stairs to her house and she calls back at me.

“Exactly. What would you do without a neighbor like me? I’ll be ready in an hour.”

“An hour?” I call back. “You’re already dressed!”

“Not for the singles out there. This is merely dog walking attire.”

“Alright. Just come on over when you’re ready and we can head off. We’re walking a lot so wear comfortable shoes.” I call walking back into my yard.

“What are we? Animals? Peasants during the time of the plague?” She shouts.

“Bye Zelena!” I roll my eyes jokingly, wave and make my way back into the house.

“Henry, off the couch, let’s go.” Henry hops off the couch and runs up stairs despite my calls telling him to walk and I meet him up in his room. He starts to jump on his bed as I go through his closest deciding what he should wear.

“Henry! Stop jumping on the bed before you break your neck.” I warn but still he jumps.

“What would your mommy say?”

“She’d jump with me!” He says with a victorious laughter.

“When I married your mother I didn’t expect to have to take care of two children. You were planned. She was not.”

Henry laughs as if he understands how family dynamics and traditional roles played in a household work and sticks out his tongue. Before he gets the chance to start jumping again, I grab him and pull him down.

“Get underdressed and put this on.” I hand him his clothes, his favorite Captain America shirt and a pair of black pants. Henry grumpily starts to rip off his clothes, throwing them on the ground and snatching the clothes out my hand. I throw him a look and he fixes his attitude and puts on the rest of his clothes. I throw his socks at his face and he puts them on sliding of the bed in attempts to sneak away.

“Uh uh, go grab your shoes mister.” He retreats into his closet and I stand by his door trying not to laugh. He’s a lot like Emma in many ways. He has her same childish attitude, appetite and energy levels. They both always have to be doing something. He comes out with some plain black vans and slips them on.

“Happy? Can I please go play now.”

“Watch the attitude mister, but yes you may.” He leaps out of his room and in less then thirty seconds he’s back down stairs playing with his toys in the living room. No more than ten minutes pass when the clock strikes 7:48 and there’s a knock on the door. I walk toward the door and I call out.

“Who is it?”

“Me.”

“Me who?” I ask. I hear a huff come from the other side of the door and I smirk.

“It’s too early for these games Regina.” She moaned rubbing at her eyes.

I let out a chuckle and I open the door. “I had to make sure you weren’t some sort of axe murderer.”

“Do you want me to be an axe murderer? Because after that stunt that could definitely be arranged.” Before I can think of a witty comeback to combat my new friend’s comment Henry comes barreling towards her but she was quick enough to prepare for the collision, digging her heels into the ground and catching the boy. I smile at the sight.

“Zelena!”

“Henry, my new favorite little kid. How’ve you been? Is your momma treating you right?” I glare at the older woman before marveling at the way she somehow just fits right in. Almost like a long lost sister.

“She made me get out of my pajamas.” He says pouting.

“Shame on her. We’ll get her back later.” She replies with a devious grin drawn on her face.

“Great another child to take care of. First Emma, then Henry, now you.”

“We’ll take that as a compliment. Come master Henry lead the way.” They stroll out the door and I quickly grab my bag and phone before following suit after locking the door.

“So Gina, what was Emma like as a child?” She asks as she pulls up beside me as Henry skips ahead.

“Don’t call me that.” I hiss.

“Touchy.” She mocks.

“Well we’ve always been best friends. Fate kept throwing us together. We went to the same schools, save for college, I used to baby sit her, we were just inseparable. She just always knew how to brighten up a room. She always had people hanging off of her. I happened to be one of them.”

“That’s amazing, but that didn’t really tell me what she was like.”

“Hmm. I suppose you’re right.” My eyes dart from tree to tree trying to remember how exactly Emma was as a child. I bite my lip and bring my wavering attention back to Zelena.

“Well when you first meet Emma she’s very quiet. She trained herself not to open up to people at a young age? The foster homes really did a number on her. She doesn’t like to talk about it much. After she was adopted she pretty much pushed all those memories behind her. Though, sometimes on a good day she could tell me a few good memories she’s made. I can’t speak for her, but I’d like to say whatever happened made her stronger you know? But anyway, after breaking through her many, many walls, that according to her I broke down faster than anyone she’s ever come in contact with that stayed in her life, she’s unbelievably funny.”

I take a generous pause to watch as Henry wanders in front of us to give myself a second to regain focus before I continued. “She loved to be goofy and just have fun. I remember the sleepovers we had. She would always convince me to do something I’d never do on my own. Something my mother would crucify me for. But with her it was worth it. It was like nothing could possibly be that bad. I knew I’d always have her by my side. She’s the type of person to sneak into your room in the afternoon with soup when you have a cold and your mother practically locks you in your room because she didn’t want to risk getting sick. Or come through your window to let you cry on her shoulder about the awful day you had.” By the end of the sentence I could feel a tear trickle down my face and I look around to see Zelena staring, unsure of what to do. “But anyway, she was basically home for me.” I wipe the tear away with the palm of my hand as if it were nothing and I give Zelena a little smile.

“And you?” She questions.

“I didn’t have time to make friends, not that I wanted to and not that people wanted to be my friend.” I murmured.

“How so?” She quirks her brow giving the sign for me to continue.

“Henry! Do not cross the street! You wait for us!” Somehow in the midst of our conversation Henry managed to make it all the way to the end of the long narrow sidewalk and was at the end of the street. Henry just stands at the edge and throws up a thumbs up and waits.

“Anyway, my mother was very controlling. Everybody knew about the infamous Cora Mills. The socialite bitch. Nobody wanted to be my friend. They were all too scared of her. Any friends I did have were because of her and her so called connections. It led to a very lonely childhood. Everything I did was for her. She even made me go to school to be a doctor.” I look at her and roll my eyes. “I ended up being grateful that I became a doctor because I did develop a passion for helping people. But to her, it was just about money and power. Money is power, Regina. That was her motto.” When we caught up with Henry he grabbed my hand as we cross the street in the direction of Storybrooke park. “Emma was like a break for me. Someone I could be myself with. I didn’t have friends like her, just snobby little brats.”

“Sounds ghastly.”

“It was.” I laugh. Pretty soon the park comes into view and Henry asks if he can run there and once given the go ahead he’s booking it down to the park like his life depended on it. His shaggy brown hair flying behind him. Zelena lets out a little laugh and claps in amusement.

“Well it seems she was good for you. Look at that happy little boy.”

“She was. Well, is.” I correct myself.

_____

_“Come on Regina, It’s your last year here before you go to the big, stinky old high school.” She says following me suit up the stairs to my bedroom._

_“Emma! I don’t wanna go to this stupid dance.”_

_“But-”_

_“Especially with that pinhead Robin.” I said cutting her off._

_“You don’t like him?” I turned around and she looked at me curiously, quirking her brow._

_“Boys are gross.” I made a silly face at her as we entered into my room and threw my book bag by the door and Emma did the same._

_“Go with me!” She said excitedly._

_“Emmaaaaaaaa.” I groaned._

_“Come on, it’ll be fun.”_

_“No!” I threw my pillow at her face in retaliation and then groaned into the spare on my bed._

_“Why not?”_

_“Emma, I hate dances. Can’t you just stay at my house? We can do something fun. Just you and me.”_

_“I guess.” She replied defeated._

_“Come on it’ll be fun. What if I let you pick a movie and convince my mom to let you stay the night. We’ll make a day of it. We’ll take you home and we can bake cookies.”_

_“From scratch?” She responded enthusiastically._

_“Of course.”_

_“Yes! Let’s do it!” She said when she jumped on me. I embraced her and gave her a tight hug._

_“You’re my best friend Emma. I mean it.”_

_“You’re my best friend too Regina.”_  
____

“How did nobody know you were a lesbian.” She cackles as we sit down on a lone bench and watch Henry.

“Hey! You should’ve seen the boy that asked me. All woodsy and dumb. Had this whole Robin Hood thing going on. Very disgusting. He smelled like forest and dirt.” Zelena looks at me and cocks a brow. “Come on! Imagine having to dance with that. No way. Not me. I had better things to do.”

“And by things you mean Emma and by do you mean shag?” She says wiggling her brows.

“Get your head out of the gutter. Emma and I were just kids. She was only in sixth grade for God’s sake. You perv!” I exclaim with a hint of laughter.

“Uh huh.”

Before I can ask what she meant by that Henry calls us to play and for the next hour or so we were off chasing the boy. We were running in every direction trying to catch him or get away from him. Eventually we decided it was time to go after Henry ran himself into a tree when we weren’t looking. When we caught up to him he was sitting facing the front of the tree, arms crossed, glaring at it.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“It hit me so I’m making sure it feels bad.” He says squinting his eyes harder.

“By burning a hole through it?” Zelena asks.

“Yes.” I look at Zelena and she throws a hand over her mouth doing her best not to laugh. Henry turns around when Zelena lets out an escaped snort and glares at her too. It takes all I have not to join her.

“Alright Hen, maybe we should go and get ice cream now before we visit mommy.” This cheers him up. Before you know it he’s standing up brushing himself off. He starts skipping and doing cartwheels through the grass as we make it towards the ice cream shop.

“Awfully resilient that boy.”

“Yeah, gets it from me.”

Once inside the shop cleverly named “Any Given Sundae” Henry beelines through the door leaving us behind to stroll through the door a couple seconds later.

“So, this is a bit of an awkward question but-“ I cut her off mid sentence when I see Henry already in line, pointing to the biggest cup.

“Hold that thought I’ll be right back.” I jog towards the front of the line leaving Zelena to make her way towards the front by herself when I see Henry ordering and the worker was already picking up a cup.

“A large Mint Chip please. Hurry!” Henry begs as he glances at me.

Just as the worker commences to scoop the ice cream I pull up just in time with a light hitch in my breathing as I combat Henry’s order. “Henry Mills! What did I say about ordering without me or mommy!”

Henry looks at the server and mumbles an ‘Uh oh’ before allowing his head to hang low.

“He’ll take a small please.” I say giving the little boy a disappointed look.

“Aww man!” He pouts walking away towards a booth leaving the worker to scoop his ice cream with an uncomfortable look across his face.

“I’ll have the usual and Zelena will have?” I question the woman standing behind me and she takes a couple for seconds to squint at the flavors before whispering to me.

“Um, fudge brownie.”

“She’ll take a small fudge brownie.” The cashier rings us up and hands us our treats after I pay and we head over to a small booth that Henry was currently occupying and sit down.

“I’m sorry what were you gonna say?” I ask handing Henry a napkin, remembering the question the older woman was unable to finish.

“Well, um, who carried Henry?” She asks nervously running her palm against the back of her neck.

“Oh, he’s adopted. We adopted him maybe two years after our wedding?” I respond laughing at the way Zelena went pink, obviously feeling silly at the question she just asked.

“Oh.” She slowly nods and spoons some ice cream into her mouth pretending that she was embarrassed. I laugh again taking a bite from the ice cream as Zelena brushes off the previous conversation.

“It’s okay. We thought about insemination, but we decided adoption would be best. Get one before they go to a group home. Emma said they were terrible.”

“How would she know?”

“Emma was adopted too.”

“Oh right, I do recall you briefly mentioning it last night. I forgot.”

“Yeah, Emma doesn’t like to talk much about that time of her life. She was in a very dark place at such a young age.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Don’t be, she has a good life now. She’s been so thankful to Ingrid for that.”

“Hm. That’s good to hear I suppose.” She looks at me and gives me a big smile before looking at my ice cream.

“What did you get?”

“It’s grandma’s specialty! And favorite! Chocolate Therapy! It’s dark chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate pudding and chocolate cookie bits!” Henry shouts before I can answer.

“Your mom?”

“No Ingrid’s. This was her store. She had a chain of them. Emma and I used to spend countless summers here.”

“That’s neat. Imagine having a grandma that has an ice cream store. You must get a lot of free ice cream.” She says poking Henry in his side making him laugh.

“I used to. Before she died.” He says nonchalantly wiping the ice cream ring off his face and licking his sticky fingers. This, once again, turns Zelena pink. You can tell she wished she could stick her foot in her mouth. I let out a loud laugh causing Zelena to kick me under the table.

“Um, ow!” I say through the laughs.

“Anyway, how did the relationship start between you two love birds?”

“I got stood up.” I say chuckling. Zelena looks at me like she doesn’t know whether she should feel sorry for me or not. I shake off the need to laugh at the poor woman and proceed to tell her the story.

____

_It was the end of my junior year when I realized that ability to be drawn to Emma at any given time wasn’t just because she was my best friend. Something in me always sought her out. We were always at the right spot and the right time. Tonight was no exception._

_It had taken me all the energy I had to get ready for this date forced upon me by my mom. I had gotten ready two hours before the date. I threw on my nicest jeans and a suitable blouse before applying my usual routine of light makeup and wearing my cleanest sneakers, to which my mother was not fond of._

_  
“Regina, must you dress like that? Those are comfort clothes. Go change.”_

_“Mother, it’s just a date.”_

_“That’s where you are wrong my dear. It’s more than a date.” She gave me a pointed look and once again told me to change, so I did. I slipped into one of the dresses my mom had bought me prior to today for some boring cocktail party she had hosted and shimmied on a pair of heels that had to be the most uncomfortable things I’ve ever had to wear._

_My mother appeared at the door and looked me up and down before letting out a small sigh and an ‘I guess that will do’ before leaving the doorway and making her way back downstairs. I let out an audible grunt before throwing my back onto my bed. As the time etched closer to the meeting time I grew antsy._

_I jumped when I heard the sound of my phone ringing. I looked down at the bright screen and saw Emma’s face smiling up at me and I gradually became more at ease._

_“Hello?”_

_“Hey Reg.”_

_“Don’t call me that.”_

_“Anyway.” She chuckled. “How’s getting ready for the business transaction?_

_“Well she made me change, so I guess this date, if I can even call it that, is a big deal to her.”_

_“Where’s he taking you?”_

_“I’m driving myself. There’s no way in hell I’m getting into a car with a stranger.” I pretended to shove a finger down my throat and gag. Emma laughed at the joke and continued on._

_“Technically you have known him close to your whole life.”_

_“Whatever.But to answer your question, we’re meeting at that little restaurant called Once Upon A Meal around 8.”_

_“Well good luck babe, I gotta go. I expect a full report.”_

_My mouth hung open as I did my best to form a sentence. “B-babe?” I squeaked._

_“Yeah, it’s a new word I’m tryin out. Watcha think?” I quietly face palmed myself. Of course._

_“You gonna use that on all the girls Swan?” I asked doing my best to recover._

_“Nah, just you.” And there it is. Typical Emma Swan. Over time as we grew older Emma had grown into a flirt. To her it’s harmless, just a little fun, but to me it’s nerve wracking. Never knowing if she’s serious or not._

_“Well, I gotta go. Be safe.” The call ended and the line went dead. I shook my head and put my phone in my purse as I made my way down the stairs calling out a simple goodbye and leaving for the restaurant._

_When I got there it was only 7:50._

_“Reservation for Mills.” I said dryly to the waiter standing near the door._

_The waiter beckoned me to follow and set me down in a tall little booth before setting down a menu. He left my side once I ordered a water and I waited. I waited some more, casually checking the door every time it opened expecting to see a familiar face, but as the time went on, there was no such luck. Every few minutes or so the waiters would come and ask me if I would like to order and every time I lowered my head in defeat and said that “they’re just running late.” “They’ll be here soon.” Thirty minutes had passed before I determined that he wasn’t coming. The waiter would give me a pitying look and whispered something to his other waiter buddies and I could feel a scowl forming on my face. I let my head hang low to the table and did my best not to cry. I knew nothing was going to happen between Robin and I, that part didn’t hurt so much, but the feeling of dread still managed to wash over me. I knew when I went home mother wouldn’t be happy. She’d find a way to blame it on me and make feel worse than I already was. I had contemplated leaving when a voice pulled me out of the void that consumed me._

_“Hey.” Emma said._

_“What are you doing here?” I mumbled._

_“Play it off.” I looked at her and I obviously had confusion written all over my face, because the next thing I know she was louder and more obvious._

_“Hey babe. Sorry I’m late.” She walked around to my side of the table and extended her arms out for a hug. I slid out of the booth and I looked over towards the staff and saw them all staring. I turned back and looked up at the taller blonde and gave the best fake smile one could give before I went in and wrapped my arms around her. The most shocking part was that when I was about to pull away, I felt her lips on my forehead._

_She let go of me and slipped into the seat across from me. I managed to stand there for a few seconds, cheeks fully red from embarrassment before I slipped into my seat and caught a wink from Emma._

_“Sorry that douche didn’t show. He wasn’t worth your time anyway.” She whispered before she waved the waiter over from across the room. He slowly strode towards us with suspicious eyes._

_“I-, why are you here?” I hissed behind the menu._

_“I was planning on spying but when I saw that he wasn’t here and how the waiters were looking at you I decided to step in.” She whispered back. Right as she finished her sentence the waiter arrived and we both looked up from behind the menu and Emma flashed her famous lop sided grin._

_“So I see your date finally showed up.” He huffed as he took out his notepad. He looked from me to Emma and shifted his weight to one side standing like an annoyed teenager._

_“Yeah, I had a bit of car trouble not that it’s any of your business. I would never leave my girl hanging because she deserves better. So you could kindly get the gorgeous woman across from me a sparkling water, the salmon with two slices of lemon on the side, and steamed vegetables no cauliflower, she’s allergic, and I’ll have the sirloin with the steak sauce along with the mashed potatoes and a regular water that would be great.” I stared at Emma with an amused smirk as she set the menu down, adjusted her posture and looked the waiter dead in the eyes. He opened his mouth but hesitated to speak. “You got all that or do you wanna stand around some more and gossip, because if that’s the case you better pull up a seat, otherwise,” she grabbed our menus and handed them back to the man. “You better get moving.” She deadpanned._

_The waiter took the menus from her hand, grumbled something under his breath and scurried away. Once out of sight I looked at Emma and let out the laugh I had buried down to help the boy avoid further embarrassment. Emma let out a chuckle before she shook her head and sent a wink my way. I knew it was an innocent gesture but that didn’t stop my body from heating up and my cheeks from going pink._

____

“After the unfortunate standing up incident Emma walked me to my car”

____

_“Thank you Emma. You saved me from a night of embarrassment.” She just smiled at me and shrugged as if it was nothing. I leaned against my car door and she stood directly in front of me. We remained in silence for a few more seconds before I broke the silence._

_“I guess I better go home and tell mother not to expect wedding bells. Thanks for saving me.” I pushed myself off the car, slipped my arms around Emma’s waist and rested my head on her chest. The warmth of her body heating up my insides on the windy November night. I lifted my head off her chest but my hands still remained around her waist and I looked up at her._

_“I’d do anything for you Regina. You deserve so much more than that asshat.” She responded. Her eyes peered into mine and she brushed the hair that had blown in front of my face behind my ear and rested her hand on the back of my head._

_“Hey Regina?”_

_“Yes Emma.”_

_“Would you maybe consider going on like a real date with me?” Her eyes darted from mine to the ground and I turned her face back towards mine and pulled her face so close to mine that I could feel her cold breath and I softly pressed my lips to hers before I pulled away._

_“I would love that.”_  
____

“The rest was history.” I said giving her a watery smile.

  
Zelena looks at me and gives me an endearing smile and reaches across the table and pats my hand. “Looks like you got yourself a savior.”

I peer at my son sitting next to Zelena, quietly talking to his hands and turning them into little puppets and I let out a small chuckle. “Yeah, I guess I did.”

She looks at me and smiles before she nods at me. “What?” I ask.

“Are you just gonna leave me hanging?” How did the date go? Come on details. It’s not everyday I become friends with a spunky lesbian and her adorable little boy.”

I smile as Henry looks up, beaming a big old smile in Zelena’s direction at the mention of his adorableness before he goes back to playing his hand puppets. “Keep that up and you’re gonna give my son a bigger head then he already has.” She laughs at the small joke before it got quiet and she looks at me as she waits for a response.

“Oh come on. Aren’t you tired of hearing about me. You’ve had me gabbering so much I know nothing about you.” She opens her mouth in a way that suggests she’s going to protest but then closes it. “Very well then. I’m Zelena Green, only child, my mother is dead, my father’s an alcoholic, I’m an interior decorator as you know, I have a dog who seems to have a better sex life than me, ” she says avoiding eye contact as I shot her a glare for using that word around Henry before she throws one back and continues on talking. “I’m obviously not a virgin, but lately with the way things have been going you would think I was. No children and I just moved here. There happy?”

I chuckle at her response before I answered her previous question. “Fine, since it’s apparent you won’t stop bugging me about this I’ll tell you.” The older woman happily throws herself backwards and claps before I continue on. “She came to my house that next Saturday evening around five for our date.”

______

_“You look amazing.” Emma looked me up and down as I moved out the way for her to enter the house. “You clean up nice as well, Miss. Swan.” Emma walked through the doorway and sheepishly handed me Lyon flowers. I smiled at blonde as I took them out her hand and made my way out the foyer and into the kitchen where Emma had slid into the chair that rested in front of the island. In the middle of when I started to put the flowers into a vase the silence was broken. By my mother._

_“Why are you two dressed up?” She asked as her eyes darted from Emma and then back to me before she raised her eyebrows and lowered her head into a slow nod like she figured it out but she wanted it verbalized._

_“Emma is taking me out.” I flashed my famous fake smile towards my mother and her eyes swept over Emma and when she turned her attention back to me and she narrowed her eyes. “I see. Is this causal? Or a date?” Her eyes made their way back to Emma and this time Emma answered._

_“No ma’am, well actually I don’t know. Maybe? I think it’s a date but-” I walked over towards Emma and placed my arm over her shoulder before I gave her a reassuring smile. “It’s a date mother. Whatever’s going on is very new to us and we’re trying to figure it out.” My mother pursed her lips and rolled her eyes._

_“Trying to figure it out?” She clicked her tongue. “Really? Regina you’re just children, and Emma? She really is just a child. Nothing but a freshman. What do you know about liking somebody? You think you’re old enough to try and do some silly soul searching? Don’t confuse yourself child.” I opened my mouth to speak but I could see Emma doing her best to keep her foot in her mouth and not say something she knew she would regret. I turned my back to my mother, something I knew I would regret later and wrapped my arm around Emma’s. “We’ll be going now mother. I’ll see you when I get home.”_

_I slowly walked past my mother and Emma slowly regained her confidence as we stuck our noses up and we strode confidently past my mother and out the door. As soon as I locked the door I could hear Emma’s sigh that she was probably holding in the whole conversation and I placed my hand on the side of her pale face._

_“Don’t let her get to you. You were very brave when you asked me out.” Emma slipped her hand into mine and we walked side by side all the way across the yard before we split to get into the car. We had spent the whole car ride laughing and talking. We never missed a beat. For us this was normal. No different from the many times I drove Emma home from school, or when we went to the small shopping center across town. I knew the date would be a breeze._

____

“It wasn’t” I say, rolling my eyes as I remember how the date went. Zelena intensely nods waiting for me to continue.

____

_Emma somehow managed to order the wrong thing off the menu and nearly gagged when they brought out the whole fish, eyes attached and everything, but according to Emma that wasn’t even the worst part. They had given her boiled Brussels sprouts as a side. While I thought it was funny and laughed at the situation, Emma however did not. She crossed her arms and snorted through her nose like a child which made me laugh even more. I ended up losing my sense of reality and started chocking on my own saliva while cradling my aching stomach from how hard I was laughing that I hadn’t noticed her pick out the eyeball from the fish that now resided on her fork. Once I had caught my breath and regained my composure I watched as she removed the eye from the fork with her index and thumb finger and she wiggled her eyebrows at me._

_“Emma, you better fucking not.” I hissed. She let out a laugh that I seldomly heard. One she reserved for when she was about to do something truly maniacal. She slowly rolled her fingers back into a flicking position and her laugh deepened when my eyes reflected fear._

_“What? You can laugh at my misfortune but I can’t laugh at yours.” She taunted. I watched as the eye flew from her finger and landed perfectly on my lap. I lost it. I jumped up and squealed, throwing the eye in some direction or other and bumped the table on my way up. Emma, being the girl she was, just kept laughing. I watched in horror as an angry waiter made his way towards our table. I threw Emma a panicked look and she shot up, threw a hundred dollars on the table and dragged me out of the restaurant._

_We could hear the man calling behind us still as we made our way through the door. Once we made it outside we thought we were safe, but the waiter followed us outside, shouting at us to come back. Emma grabbed my hand and we continued to run. Well she ran, I sorta hopped my way through the empty streets because of my heels and made our way into a small store that had just opened a month ago._

_“Emma. Are you serious?” I threw her a glare in attempt to make her feel guilty but my face softened up when I saw her face. Her cheeks were pink, her hair was a mess and she was panting for her life. I watched as she she straightened out her back and ran her fingers through her hair. A worried look plastered across her face._

_“I’m so sorry Regina. I didn’t think you’d react that badly and I’m so sorry for practically getting us kicked out. My only options were stay and get yelled at and probably banned or run. I chose the latter because I knew Cora would have a fit.” Her breath had began to hitch and her eyes had filled up with tears. “I ruined our date.”_

_I pulled Emma into a secluded part of the store because she began to attract attention from unwanted people because of her heavy breathing and I just smiled._

_“Emma Swan, with you there is never a dull moment.” I pulled her into a hug and her body relaxed molding into mine. “But I ruined our date.” She mumbled into the top of my head._

_“There will be others.” I said looking up into the sea of jade that laid before me._

_“There will?” She questioned. Her eyes had flashed of hope and I just smiled. “Of course.” I pulled Emma into another hug and before I let go, she moved her face closer to mine and soon her lips met mine. It was a short kiss, nothing crazy. But it was how it had made me feel. Her lips were soft and at that moment I felt safe. Safer than I had ever been. There in the corner of some random department store in Emma’s arms is where I truly had felt the safest._

____

“You guys are so gay, it’s unbelievable. And I can’t believe she threw an eye at you. Me and her are gonna make such great friends. I can’t wait to meet her.”

“Great. Yet another adult child that I have to spend my time watching. You guys are going to steal what’s left of my youth.” I say as I throw her a smirk to combat her tongue that she stuck out resulting in a laugh from both me and Henry, who had decided to pay attention in that exact moment.

“What’s gay momma?” I roll my eyes when I hear Zelena’s cackle in the background but I proceed to try explain anyway. “It’s when two people of the same gender love each other.” He quirks his head to the side and narrows his eyes at his hands.

“Are my hands gay? Because they’re two of the same thing. Ooh! And my feet and my eyes and my ears!” Zelena’s laugh intensifies as I exude a panicked face as I attempt to dilute the situation before he goes to school telling everyone their whole bodies are gay.

“No mijo, not exactly. They have to like people. Like me and mommy, or two men. I guess animals too? I’m not really sure. But you were close.” He just looks at me and says ‘oh’ like it’s no big deal and takes a bite of his ice cream.. Now it’s my turn to kick the other woman.

“Cheeky little devil.” She says rubbing her shin as I rub my temples and sigh.

I think to myself ‘_Children, I’m surrounded by children.’_

After we finish eating our ice cream and laughing at the mishap that was Zelena’s unfortunate accident where she was heading to throw away her ice cream and Henry, not looking where he was going, walked smack dab into Zelena’s rear end causing her to yelp and spill the small remaining amount of the liquidized treat onto her blouse, which earned me a glare and a swat on the shoulder, we started to make our way home and part ways as Henry and I get into Emma’s car and we make our way to the hospital. We near the area of the accident and I make sure to stop at the light. Once we make it to the hospital we head inside, going up through the elevator being occupied by a nurse.

“Afternoon Mills, haven’t seen you today.”

“Arendale.” I say politely nodding at the blonde before me. “I decided to spend the day with my son.”

“Isn’t today Friday? A school day?”

I turn and furrow my brow. “What about it?”

“Nothing.” The rest of the ride up was ridden in silence, and as soon as the door pinged open the nurse scurried out of the elevator as quickly as she could.

“You remember which way?”

“Yes momma.” He calls making a left. We keep going straight after that turn and I grab his shoulder before he went inside.

“You need to be extra careful of mommy remember. She has lots of tubes that we can’t touch.” He nods and slowly enters the room.

“Hi mommy.” He whispers. My heart hurts watching the little boy talk to his unresponsive mother. Ever since Henrys adoption, they were inseparable.

______

_“He’s beautiful Regina.”_

_The adoption of our baby boy had just been finalized. All the paper work had been filled out and signed. The house was inspected, the interviews were over. This boy was now legally ours. We had just made it to out car when Emma stopped._

_“Are you okay?”_

_“He’s just so beautiful. He has brown eyes like yours.” I smiled as I walked over to the other side of the car where the blonde had remained stagnant and I smiled at the sight. Emma had the 8 month old baby wrapped in her arms and she peered down at his face and made silly faces. I scooted closer to Emma before placing a kiss to her cheek and squeezing her arm._

_“He is very cute. Like his mother.” I opened the back door to reveal Henry’s car seat and gave Emma a nod to put Henry into the car before I made my way back around the car and into the driver seat, and not long after listening to Emma’s grumble about how a car seat shouldn’t be that difficult, she was in the front seat next to me. She looked at me and grabbed my hand._

_“Look at us. We have the family we’ve always wanted.” She leaned over and planted a soft kiss on my lips. I smiled back before starting the engine and driving home. She let out a content sigh before she turned her head to face the car seat and chuckled. “You’re coming home Henry.”_

_It wasn’t long before we pulled up and Emma was unbuckling Henry from the car seat. I could hear her whispering to the baby and making silly noises as we entered the foyer._

_“I’m gonna make him a bottle.” Emma looked up at me and stole a kiss before settling with Henry on the couch. I can hear Emma cooing over the baby all the way from the kitchen. After the fifth ‘Who’s my handsome boy?’ the bottle was ready and I made my way back to the living room._

_“Why don’t you take him to his room so you can use the rocking chair love?” She nodded and slowly got up walking cautiously up the stairs as I followed behind her. When I made it up the stairs Emma was already in the rocking chair and I handed her the bottle. We sat there for a good ten minutes while he finished his bottle. I watched as Emma’s face lit up every time Henry made a noise, or when he would grab her finger as she played with his hair. I smiled at Emma as she giggled at the boy that was now resting on her shoulder as she burped him._

_“Do you have other kids somewhere on the other side of the world? You’re a natural” She smiled at me and made a face before she continued to burp the now tired boy._

_“I need to use the bathroom. I’ll be right back.” I left the room and headed to our bathroom. After a few minutes I had finally reentered the room where I saw my wife and son sleeping as she lightly still rocked them. I walked over towards Emma and bent down to meet her at her level and I slowly reached for the boy and lifted him onto my shoulder. I laid him in his crib and turned on the baby monitor before I went back over to Emma and I gently shook her._

_“Come baby. Let’s get you to bed.” Emma got up and staggered to the door and I laughed, coming up behind her resting my hand on her back._

_“I didn’t know I was signing up for two kids.” Emma let out a fake chuckle before she lightly nudged me and walked into the room._

_Emma entered the bathroom to get out of her court clothes and into something more comfortable as I walked over to my side of the bed and turned on the receiving end of the baby monitor before I joined in getting changed. It was only the middle of the day, but we both knew that having a kid makes you very tired. We’ve seen our friends and how tired they were. We knew that any chance of rest would be a God send._

_We slid under the covers and the front of Emma’s body met the back mine and she wrapped her hand around my waist._

_“Motherhood looks good on you Miss. Swan-Mills.” I mumbled before releasing a small yawn._

_“We’re gonna be awesome moms Gina.”_

_I laughed before stealing a kiss and then I gently pinched Emmas side. “Don’t call me that.” Emma just laughed before she stole another kiss._

_“I like my women fiesty.” She joked before settling into the grove she made in the bed._

_“Good Night Miss. Swan” I said molding my body into hers. I laughed as Emma quietly mumbled ‘Swan-Mills under her breath._

_Soon the room grew quiet save for the quiet growls that came from Emma mouth as she snored._

____

After an hour or so Mary Margaret and David make their way back into the room surprising Henry. He runs up to them and gives them a big hug. They look at me and give me a smile before taking a seat in the spare chairs. They tell me all about their day, some minor things the doctors said and we manage to have a couple of lengthy conversations with very few periods of silence before we erupted into other mindless chit chat. Henry sits quietly the whole time next to Emma’s bed playing with his action figures.

“I’m tired.” Henry says an hour later rubbing his eyes.

“I’m sorry sweetie but-” I start to tell Henry he was going to have to stay with me for a coupe more hours before I was interrupted.

“We can take him home Regina. We have that small couch he can sleep on. You stay here.” Their eyes plead with me as if they were begging to leave the hospital. I couldn’t blame them so I accept their offer.

“Thank you. But you guys can stay at my house. If that’s easier. We have that guest bed you can stay in.”

“Sounds wonderful.” They gather their bags and I pull Henry into a hug as he sleepily rests his head in the crook of my neck.

“Okay honey, they’re gonna take you home, and I promise I’ll be back in the morning to be with you, but momma needs to stay with the mommy and talk to the doctors.” He sleepily nods and I kiss his scruffy hair before David comes and carries him out the room throwing a ‘see you tomorrow’ over their shoulders. Once they’re gone and the door was shut I let out the worried breath I was holding in and I scoot closer to Emma interlocking our fingers.

“Hey baby. We have new neighbor. You’re gonna meet her when you wake up. You’ll love her. Henry does but what else is new. He loves everyone. She’s a lot like you except she’s a bit more crass.” I chuckle.

I sit there silently waiting for something. A finger twitch, the flutter of her eyes, a murmur. Anything. Nothing comes. I can feel the sadness welling up inside me and I do my best to keep it in. “I miss you.” I whisper quietly into her hand before I place a delicate kiss on her frail hands.

Hours pass and doctors come and go before I manage to finally fall asleep around 9:30 thinking about Henry, and how close the two were and how this was probably affecting him.

______

_“Again!” I watched as Emma threw the two year old up in the air per the little boys request. Giggles and squeals filled the room as Emma threw Henry up in the air a couple more times before setting the boy down to play. Emma sat down and occupied the empty seat next to me on the couch as I watched the boy play with his toys. I leaned forward a bit as Emma’s hand made its way behind my back and around my shoulders._

_“That kids got quite a bit of energy in him.” She said wiping her forehead with her free hand._

_“Don’t look at me. He gets that from you. You’re the one who’s high maintenance.” She pulled her arm sharply from my back and feigned hurt. “I am not high maintenance.” She whined._

_“Oh yes you are dear.” I chuckled as she rolled her eyes at me and stomped over to Henry. She angrily dropped herself on the floor and started whispering to the boy. I quirked my brow when Henry looked at me and then back to Emma and then me again before he nodded. They continued to play and after a few minutes I started to think nothing was going to happen. Just when I started to let my guard down both Henry and Emma came running towards me. Henry becoming a barrel of laughs as he tickled my sides. I let out a shriek as Emma came to my other side tickling me._

_“Emma” I squealed,” this is exactly” I squirmed “what I meant by high maintenance!” I shouted before I jumped off the couch._

_“I have no idea what you mean.” She said innocently. “Yeah momma. What ya talkin’ bout?” I furrowed my brow at the two and crossed my arms._

_“You two are a handful. Now get off my couch and let me sit down.” I teased. I watched as the little boy giggled as he slid down the couch and Emma picked him up, placing him on her lap. I sat down next to two and grabbed the remote._

_“Snow White please!” He shouted from Emma’s arms._

_“No way. You can watch that when you’re alone with mommy. I won’t watch that movie.” I stated._

_“Come on Regina, it’s not that bad of a movie.”_

_“Snow White is an annoying brat. What about Tangled mijo?” Henry looked at me like he was trying to decide before nodding and settling in on Emma’s lap, playing with her blonde curls._

_“I wonder if I should make popcorn.” I mumbled. I jumped when both of them responded with a loud excited yes. I left and came back around five minutes later after popping the popcorn and separating them into two bowls. Henry and Emma’s and mine. Emma and Henry both love an ungodly amount of salt and butter on their popcorn, and unlike them, I like to regulate what I put in my body._

_Halfway through the movie we were all laying down. My legs taking up residency on the foot stool as Emma’s feet laid across mine. I looked over and noticed the popcorn hanging out of the sleeping blonde’s mouth. I looked at the boy sitting on Emma’s stomach intensely watching the movie and I smiled. It wasn’t long before the boy was slumped over Emma and sleeping. Knowing better than to wake them up, I slowly slid out from under Emma’s legs and gently repositioned the two before slipping off the young boy’s pants so he wouldn’t get too hot, and then threw a blanket over the pair and placed a kiss on their heads._

_“Good night momma.” Henry said slowly reaching for my head. I leaned down as he placed a kiss on my forehead. “Good night baby.” I walked upstairs and did my nightly routine before coming back down and taking up the other couch before falling asleep._

____

It must have only been a few hours later when I woke up to a loud deafening beeping from the machine that resided by Emma’s side. I knew that sound all too well. The bed was shaking with Emma's jerks. She was having a seizure which is why the machines attached to her were screaming out to alert the staff of the danger falling upon Emma. Without missing a beat I was up by the bed holding her shoulders, trying to control her vicious movements and calling for help. As the nurses rush in I yelled at the newest nurse Tink, to give her a dose of Midazolam. Once given, her seizures finally ended and her body calmed down. I let her go and slump down the chair with a sigh as I told the nurses to page the doctor. As soon as they left I broke down in tears. I knew that what just happened wasn't a good sign. Emma's becoming weak and now her body's giving up. I hold back a sob so the nurses or Whale don’t see me like this but I realize that I'm starting to lose hope.

I pull out my phone and text Zelena, asking her if she wanted to meet at Granny’s for a cup of coffee. Zelena texts back a few minutes later with a ‘sure’ and I run my hand through my hair. I look over at Emma and my heart breaks for her. Restless, I get up out of the chair and I walk over to the side of Emma’s bed before I brush the blonde hair out of her face and I place a soft kiss to her forehead then I grab my purse and walk out the room. On my way out I make sure to tell the other nurses to keep a close eye on her and that I want a nurse checking on her every half hour.

I walk into Granny’s ten minutes later and I find Zelena sitting in the corner behind a menu. I recognize her hair as it shines even brighter from the lighting. I walk over and slip into the booth.

“Hi darling. How are you doing.”

“She had a seizure.” I mumble, skipping the pleasantries and rub the back of neck.

“I’m sorry love.” She reached across the table and grabbed my hand.

“I don’t know what to do Z. I feel like giving up.” Without breaking the contact, Zelena slides through the booth and wraps her arm around me pulling me into a hug. I rest my head on her shoulder and wipe the tears that fell down my cheek as my breathing started to shake. She rubs the side of my head gently and I began to calm down, my breathing finally starting to relax.

“Do you wanna have a girls’ night?”

I wipe at my eyes one more time before I looked up at her. “What about Henry?

“Bring him. Duh. We’ll have fun. You need some fun right now. Come over around six. And don’t worry about bringing anything. Just bring that amazing boy of yours.” She motions for me to slide out the booth and I do with her following suit.

“What about the coffees?”

“Don’t worry about it. Just get some rest.” We made our way through the doors, parting ways after a hug and soon after I was on my way home.

The drive was quick but silent. What was once filled with laughter and music now rested in silence. The familiar scent in Emma’s car of cinnamon and those tacky little car fresheners fill the car. I park her car in the driveway and make my way inside, through the hallway and I could hear Henry’s little pitter patter throughout the rooms and the laughter following.

When I get to the end of the hallway, I peer in. I watches as Henry clings to David’s back as Mary claps offbeat to the song Henry was singing. Something about a shark that needed feeding. I clear my throat to make my presence known and Henry looks at me with excitement before David bends down and Henry jumps off his back and rushes straight into my arms.

“Hi my little prince.” I cup his cheek and place a quick kiss on his forehead. I gaze at the other couple and offer them a small smile. “Thank you so much for doing this. You really didn’t have to do that.” They both look at my with pity before David speaks up. “It was our pleasure. It’ll help us get used to the little feet running around when our time comes.” Smiling at the statement I turn back to Henry.

“Alright mijo, go upstairs and change into some different pajamas. Momma’s gonna talk to the adults while you get dressed.” He gives an enthusiastic smile before he run up the stairs. I strut over to the couch where they were sitting and take a seat next to them.

“How was she?” Mary Margaret asks.

“She had a seizure early this morning. She isn’t doing too well and I don’t know what more I can do.”

“She’s gonna be okay Regina. If I learned anything from Emma in college and pretty much through the whole time I’ve known her, she’s a fighter. She’s gonna come back to you. To Henry. You just have to have hope.”

I look at her and I could feel my eyes begin to water. “How much hope can I possibly have at this point. It’s been two weeks.” I snap.

“Come on Regina. You just gotta be strong, if not for yourself then for Henry.”

It took about one cup of coffee and two chocolate chip cookies before the Nolans decided it was time for them to leave. It was just Henry and I sitting in our living room playing on the floor.

“Momma? Why did I have to change into different pajamas?” He asks looking up at me with a curious look on his face.

“We’re gonna have girls and Henry day with Zelena.”

“On a Saturday? We’re su’posta have those on Friday nights.”

“I know we usually have Henry nights on Friday but Zelena asked to do it today.” He just nods and went back to hitting my toy dinosaur with his. We spend the day chasing each other around the house and watching his and Emma’s favorite show Steven Universe.I don’t understand the appeal but it makes them laugh and keeps them from wrecking my house so I don’t say anything. Before long it was around 4:30 and I told Henry to go throw on his flip flops and we head out the house walking towards the house next door.

I knocke on the door and Henry stands there with his dinosaur in one hand and a juice box in the other. Zelena opens the door and greets me with a hug. “Hey.” She greets softly. “Thanks for inviting us.” I say in my best ‘everything is fine’ voice. “Where’s our little Henry?” She said playfully. I laugh and watch as Henry jumps up and down trying to get Zelena’s attention. “Did you forget him at home?” She said making it painfully obvious that she wasn’t going to look at the ground to find Henry. “I must have. He was right here.” I scratch at my head for extra emphasis.

At this moment Henry decides he’s had enough and runs full speed at Zelena forcing her to acknowledge him. “There you are ya little devil. I’ve missed you. Go on inside and make yourself at home. I have some movies you can sort through for tonight.” Henry didn’t need anymore initiative before he ran into her house giggling.

“Come here.” She beckons, waving me over. I staggered over to her and walked into her embrace. She drapes her arms around me and I just stand there doing my best not to cry. She runs her hand up and down my back and I groan.

“Hey now. Now is not the time to give up. You got this. From what I’ve heard Emma is a little kicker. One of those bugs that won’t die after spraying raid on them.” I was about to respond when Henry shouts “Come on! I’m all by myself!” Zelena and I laugh as we walk through the hallway, her arm now wrapped around my waist. “Coming you little monster.” Zelena hollers back.

When we came into view of Henry he was standing on her couch holding two movies bouncing from one leg to another. “Henry. Manners. Get down.” I hiss. He rolls his eyes and jumps down. “Next time don’t leave me by myself momma.” I open my mouth in shock to respond but nothing came out. I only stand there with my mouth slightly ajar and Zelena laughs.

“He gets that from Emma.” I say throwing a glare. This only made Zelena cackle louder and Henry turn his head in confusion. “Oh no Gina. He gets that from you.” I glare at her giving her a light whack to her arm. “He does not and don’t call me that.” We eventually settled down after the bantering and picked one of the games Zelena had pulled out called “Pictionary ”

Almost three hours later and its chaos. “A Spider!” Zelena yells. “A Hand Turkey!” There was only a few more seconds on the clock and I was hoping Henry would guess this one so that we would finally be in the lead after two and a half hours of losing to Zelena. She doesn’t let you forget you’re losing either, which in return riles Henry up. Never in my life have I seen a six year old jump on furniture so aggressively shouting animal names and flopping into a pillow screaming when the time is up. The sand in the timer ran out and Henry once again flops onto the couch in a fit of rage.

“It’s a cat! Come on! Those are the ears and that’s the tail!” I sit down next to a defeated Henry and politely crossmy legs as Zelena gets up to go to the board we were all drawing on. As she passes me she chuckles out a “that’s a cat?” and grabs the marker from my hand.

“We can’t all be Van Gogh.” I mumble with a shrug and look over at Henry who was sitting quietly. “Don’t worry mijo, we’ll get the next one.” He nods disappointedly at me and Zelena began drawing. It was obvious she started to go easy because of Henry when her drawings became easier.

“Is it a monkey?” He asks quietly. Zelena stops drawing and puts the cap back on the marker and looks at Henry and grins. “You guessed it!” Before she hands Henry the marker I shot her a look and she pulls it back. “I think maybe it’s time for something to eat. What do you say Zelena?” I asked flashing a big smile.

“I don’t see why not. How does pizza sound?” She inquires as Henry turns to me with those big brown eyes begging for pizza and I recognize a flash of a much younger, happier boy.

______

_“Dance with me Regina.” I watched as the blonde jumped up from her spot on the living room couch and strode towards the steps I was coming down from. She extended her hand and I quirked my brow as I cautiously took her hand and made my way down the remaining steps._

_“There’s no music dear.” I laughed as she closed the gap between us, resting my head on her chest. My arms hugging around her waist as hers took residence over my shoulder. My heart melted into the vibrations as she spoke. “We’ll make our own.” I scoffed at what I thought was a joke until I heard the blonde begin to sing. Emma had never been able to sing, but the fact that she put herself out there to make me laugh and feel loved is one of the reasons I fell in love with her._

_“You are my sunshine, my only sUnShiNe.” I threw my hand over my mouth in attempt to mask the laughter that managed to escape after Emma’s voice cracked. I looked up to see her bright smile beaming down at me. “I never said I was the best singer.” She laughed, shrugging off the embarrassment. I returned the smile as our hands switched spots and my hands were now snaked around her neck. “The voice of an angel dear, the voice of an angel.” I peered into her vibrant eyes and watched as hope and life danced through them. We stayed like this for a while and at that moment time seemed to stand still._

_It wasn’t long until we heard the pitter patter of little three-year-old feet making their way down the steps. “Whatcha doin mommies?” Henry asked with wide eyes._

_“Dancing Henry. Would you like to join us?” Emma offered. He made his usual daily leap off the last stair before he threw his hands together and widened his eyes once more. “Oh Can I?” He begged. Emma let out a chuckle and nodded. “Sure bud.” That was all he needed before he came barreling out the foyer and into the room with us._

_Emma slightly put distance between us and spun me around before we each took one of Henry's hands. We were spinning in a circle and jumping up and down as Emma continued to sing our favorite song. It didn’t take long before we were all in on the singing. Emma let go of our hands and started to jump up and down in a circle, flailing her arms about. We laughed and watched as Emma danced some more and we clapped along to the beat of the inner child that lived inside Emma. The joy in her face as she picked up Henry and spun him around as he squealed with excitement made my heart beat even faster. The scene that unfolded in front of me made my body tingle. I was happy._

_I decided to take a break and watch them dance so I shifted into a spot on the couch and my eyes danced as I watched them move across the living room floor laughing and screaming. Emma made eye contact with me and gave me that shit eating grin and ran towards me, lifted me off the couch and over her shoulders and spun both of us around. I looked at Henry and laughed as his eyes grew with enthusiasm at his mom’s antics. When Emma gently set us back on our feet she pulled me in once again and Emma and I started slow dancing to her hums. Henry wrapped his arms around our waists and we swayed._

_This feeling of home that I get from my life long best friend and the curiosity in the brown eyes of the light of my life brought so much comfort that all I did was close my eyes and listen to the sounds of my breathing and Emma’s hums. As she finished the song I felt her head shift and I looked up._

_“I mean it Regina. You are my sunshine.”_

_“I know. You’re mine too.” I extended my neck and elevated my feet and placed a soft chaste kiss on her lips._

_“I love you.”_

_“I love you mommies.”_  
____

I gave my son a watery smile and scrunched down to his level running my hand through his hair. “Just this once.”

“Good because I already ordered the pizza and it will be here soon.” Zelena stated with a childish grin. “In the mean time let’s play another game before the pizza gets here”

____

“No fair. How did I lose!” Henry shouts as he stands up angrily. “Henry simmer down. It’s just a game.” He looks at me I recognize the tears in his eyes. “No. You cheated. I don’t wanna play anymore.” Just like that he storms out of the room and back into the foyer.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know he was one of those kids.” Zelena looks like she just took a blow to the stomach. Making Henry upset obviously upset her.

“Don’t worry about it. He’s got to learn he can’t have everything. Although he’s usually not this bad. This he definitely gets from Emma. She’s such a poor loser. She’s actually a very sore loser for someone who’s very competitive.” I give Zelena an encouraging smile before patting her shoulder. “I’ll go get him. Why don’t you put on the Little Mermaid. He likes Ursula. She’s his favorite. That’ll make him feel better.”

I slowly got up of the floor after a little push from Zelena. When I enter the next room I saw Henry on a little couch with his face buried into the pillows. I go over and sit down on the edge of the couch.

“Henry?” I got no response. He buries his head further and I could hear the sniffles from behind the pillows. “Mijo, it was just a game.” I state gently poking his side earning me a slight giggle. “You and your mommy. Sheesh. You’re so alike it’s scary.” This caught his attention. He poked one eye out from behind the pillow.

“What do ya mean?”

I smile and reach over moving the pillow and motioning for him to come and sit on my lap. “Your mommy doesn’t like losing either. Remember that one time we were playing chess and I started to win so she flipped the board over?” Henry laughed and nodded vigorously. “You both always want to win, which isn’t a bad thing, but sometimes it’s okay to lose.” He nods slowly before wrapping me in a hug.

“I miss her momma. When is she coming home?” He whispers into my neck, his small hands grasping at the back of my neck. “Me too baby. And I don’t know. Hopefully soon.” I stroke his hair and slowly rock him side to side. “Come on, let’s go apologize to Zelena because that was mean and you might’ve hurt her feelings. Then we can watch a movie okay?” He nods once more and shimmies down my lap putting his hand in mine before we get up and enter the other room.

“I’m sorry for being mean. I enjoyed playing with you.” Zelena peers up at the boy and smiles. Her mood instantly inflating. I could tell she was taking a real liking to Henry.

“It’s okay Henry. I enjoyed playing with you too. Come little bean. Let’s watch a movie.” She stands up and picks up Henry carrying him over to the couch. Henry squeals as she drops him onto the couch and pokes his side. Once Zelena and I each settle on both sides of Henry, the movie starts. Zelena laughs in amazement that Henry knows almost every word of the movie and most definitely every word of the songs. We whisper quietly to each other for the majority of the movie but when Ursula’s song came on he loudly shushes us.

“Hush. This is my favorite part you guys.” He waves his hands at us and Zelena and I both share a little chuckle before we got quiet and watch as Henry sings the lyrics. Not long after the song was over we were back to having our mini conversations. Henry starts to rest his head on my lap and I knew it wouldn’t be long before he was asleep. Sure enough as the credits roll up you can hear the soft snoring coming from the boy.

“I guess we should go.” I said motioning to the sleeping boy.

“You should stay. He’s obviously tired.” Zelena gets up and stretches her legs.

“I would hate to impose. We literally live just next door.” She just looks at me with annoyance at me shaking her head.

“What are you gonna do, wake him up so he can walk maybe 100 ft? Because you definitely can’t carry him, and I don’t want to carry him. I started doing jazzersize. It’s kicking my ass. Just stay and stop making things difficult.”

“I suppose. If you’re sure.” I shrug and Zelena lets out a tiny squeal before gently picking up Henry and carrying him up the stairs. I follow close behind her as she turns into what I had once witnessed to be Emma’s room, now converted into a guest room. She sets him down on the left side of the bed and whispered ‘I’ll be back’ before she exited the room. I made my way around the room and placed a small kiss on his forehead, careful not to wake him up.

“Here.” I gaze up and Zelena’s holding a stack of clothes and a toothbrush in the doorway. I grab the clothes from her, giving a nod of thanks, and watch as she makes her way back downstairs. I slip out of the room and into the bathroom to change my clothes, the process taking a bit longer than usual due to the useless arm residing on my side. I run my other hand through my hair hoping to untangle it before brushing my teeth and carrying the clothes back to the room. I debate just going to sleep but I found myself making my way downstairs to meet Zelena.

“Hey. I thought you’d be asleep.” She beams at me, showing off her wine glass. “Care for a glass?”

“Oh yes. I never turn down wine.”

“What are you doing still up. I thought you would be tired after today.”

“It’s only like 9:30 Z.” She chuckles as she pours me a glass and hands it to me. “Yeah but you did a lot today. You’ve been through a lot today.” My smile fades at the mention of the earlier incident and I down the wine.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

I snort at that question. “What’s there to talk about. My wife’s in a coma and everyday she doesn’t wake up is another step towards knocking at death’s door.” I watch as Zelena’s face scrunches up and she frowns. “I’m sorry that was harsh. I- I just don’t know what to do anymore.”

“Just breathe. And don’t lose hope. The second you lose hope is the second things start to go own hill.”

“I’m so sick of hope speeches. I don’t think I can do this anymore.” For what seemed like the twentieth time this week, I start to cry. It wasn’t a small cry, but a full on ugly cry. Zelena gets up from behind the counter and wraps her arms around me. She doesn’t say anything. She just let me cry. When I pull back I was sure my eyes were puffy and I wipe away the snot and the tears on the pajamas. “I got snot on your pajamas.” I begin to lightly cry again, this time mixing it with a bit of laughter.

“Hey, hey, hey. Relax. Those can be washed. Relax love. I’ve got you. Come on. I’ve got some chocolate. We can just sit and talk about Emma. Or not talk about her. Or we can not talk at all. You’ve got a friend right here.” She strides over to the pantry and pulls out some dark chocolate and grabs my hand pulling me towards the couch.

____

After staying up almost all night with Zelena talking about Emma and Zelena’s ex boyfriends and our past experiences we had fallen asleep and didn’t wake up until Henry came downstairs and jumped on my stomach. After eating breakfast and spending the whole Sunday at Zelena’s house we came home around nine. When we got into the house Henry went upstairs and took his shower while I wait for him to call me back up to read him a goodnight story.

“I’m ready momma!” He calls excitedly from the stairs. I slowly launched myself off the couch and made my way up the stairs.

Inside the room I was greeted by a wet haired hug ‘goodnight’ before he snuggles into bed for his daily nighttime story. An hour and a half later the book was finished and I was in my bed asleep after all the festivities.

____

“Henry! Let’s go, move! It’s only Monday and you’re already going to be late!” I yell from the bottom of the stairs. The little boy runs down the steps, even though he knew not to, and engulfs me in a hug.

“Okay. I’m ready.” He says flashing a grin at me before he grabs an apple and backpack out of my hand. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now lets go.”  
____

I dropped Henry off at school and made my way back to the house. Since I haven’t been home in a while it’s been a bit neglected. I stepped inside the house and looked around at what I should do first. Clean up his toys? The dust? Take out the recycling? I settled on his toys first and spent the next thirty minutes moving from room to room picking up his toys.

“No way this is three days worth of toys. What do I pay this baby sitter for?” I grumble.

After picking up the endless amounts of toys, I start to clean away all that dust that made my house its home. I go through every room wiping down the tables, desks, windows, and anywhere else dust might be. It takes about an hour for me to dust everything off as well as empty all the thrash bins around the house. I go to get a bucket of soap and water and a mop to start mopping the floor, very focused on what I was doing. Something about the routine of cleaning gave me a bit of relief, a sense of normalcy I’ve been lacking ever since the accident. Suddenly my phone blasts off bringing me back to reality. I look at who’s calling then immediately grab the phone and answer it.”

“Hello?”

“Hi Miss. Mills. This is StoryBrooke Elementary calling.” I roll my eyes at the woman over the phone. _I’m well aware of who it is. Caller ID exists._

I mustered up my best polite voice and answer her. “Uh huh. How can I help you?”

“Well I was just calling to remind you that tomorrow is career day, which seems to have upset your son because he wanted to have both of his moms there. He’s in the office with me. He’s been crying for quite a while. He’s kinda calmed down but we think it’s best you come get him.”

“I’ll be right there.” I hang up the phone and hop into Emma’s car and drive down to the school. When I get inside the office I notice Henry sitting in the chair by the secretary. His legs are propped up underneath his arms and his face is buried in his knees. I slowly step into the room and mouth a ‘thank you’ to the secretary before I walk over to Henry and bend down next to him.

“Hey sweetie. You ready to go home?” Henry looks up at me with his watery brown eyes and his stuck out lip and nods. He hops off the chair and grabs my hand leading me out the room.

I buckle Henry up in his booster and we’re on our way back home. The car was silent the entire ride. When I peer into the review mirror Henry’s head was hanging and his thumb was in his mouth which wasn’t a good sign. Henry never sucks his finger unless he’s really upset. He gets really hard to talk to when he’s like this. We pull up to the house and once inside Henry throws himself on the couch in the living room, burying his face into the cushions and he lets out the smallest little cry. My heart shatters.

I hover next to the couch he’s laying on and rub his back. “Henry? Wanna tell me what happened?” He shook his head. “Wanna tell Zelena what happened? I’m sure she misses her best friend. Maybe she can stay and have some ice cream with you? Maybe watch show? How does that sound?” He nods his head and sits up. “I’ll be right back.”

I walk out the house and across both lawns and knock on the door but no one answers. I knock again but still she doesn’t come. I look back to check if her car was in the drive way, which it was, so I start to call her name. “Zelena? It’s Regina!”

“I’m back here!” I hear a faint shout coming from the side of the house and I follow it. I walk through the gated pathway and into the backyard where I see Zelena on her knees in the dirt gardening.

“Hey Regina. What’s up?” She ask as she wipes the sweat away from her forehead with her arm.

“Well, I can see that you’re busy, but Henry had a rough day at school and won’t talk to me about it, he doesn’t really have anyone else to talk to but he said he’d talk to you. So, I was wondering if you could come over and maybe help me out?”

Zelena takes a glance at her flowers and then wipes her hands on her pants.

“Sure. Just lemme change my pants and wash up a little. Those plants aren’t going anywhere. Come in while I get ready.” I follow Zelena through the familiar sliding glass door and into her house where she went to the sink and starts washing her hands.

“So what happened?”

“All I know is tomorrow’s career day and he wanted to bring both of us. That was the plan before the accident. I’ve rarely seen him act this way, but from what the teacher told the secretary he was a mess. I know he misses her, but this is the first time I’ve seen him so upset over it as to grow a tantrum. Henry doesn’t do tantrums.”

She furrows her brow at me as she dries her hands and walks over to where I was standing. “So, what do you need me for? Seems to me like you know what happened.”

“Yeah but I want to know why.”

“Uh huh.” She only nods and starts up the steps. “I’ll be right down.”

Once Zelena was cleaned up to her satisfaction, we walked back over to my house and she called for Henry. “Henry?” A little body slowly walked through the hallway and greeted Zelena with a small fragile hug. “What’s wrong my little monster?” Henry looked at me and then at Zelena and then back at me and I got the hint.

“I’ll get started on dinner. You talk to Z.” He nods and I leave them knowing Zelena would come tell me later. I start making a simple macaroni and cheese. I pull out the cheese, the cream of mushroom soup, and the pasta and I let the water boil. I began to grate the cheese block and after what seemed like forever my arm is completely limp from grating the cheese the hard way, with only one arm, and when the water was completely boiled, and I threw in the pasta. I decided to steam some vegetables as well while I waited for the noodles to cook.

Eventually the noodles were finished, the cheese and cream of mushroom was mixed and the vegetables were steamed. I called for Zelena and Henry and continued setting the table. Henry walked in holding Zelena’s hand with a smile on his face and that brought a smile to mine.

“Henry go wash your hands while the adults finish setting up and pouring the drinks.”

‘Okay mommy.” He happily gets up and skips to his bathroom upstairs.

“So, what did he say?” I question.

“Nothing you didn’t really already know. He just said he wanted you both there, he wanted to show off his super cool mommies to his friends. Also, nobody believes Emma is a deputy. He bragged to all his friends and now he’s scared they’re gonna think he’s a liar.”

“My poor baby.” I place a hand over my heart and my shoulders fall.

“What are ya guys talking about?” Henry calls from behind us.

“Oh nothing little bean. Just about the kind of wine ya good ol friend Z is gonna get wasted on.”

“What’s wasted?”

“When you get a lot of your favorite thing.”

Henrys eyes lit up and he throws his hands up in the air. “I WANT TO GET CHOCOLATE WASTED!” Zelena chuckles but I gave her a smack on her stomach along with a glare.

“We’ll see Henry. Here get your plate and eat and we’ll see about you getting chocolate wasted.” I call with a chuckle.

Henry enthusiastically nods his head and we all return to the table with our plates. We sit in our respected seats, meaning nobody in Emma’s chair, while we eat our food. Henry and Zelena spend the entire time laughing and making fun of me. We mess around and spend most of the time telling jokes, but in the middle of wine chugging competition, water chugging for Henry, I got a phone call.

I pull the phone out of me pocket and slide the green button to the right, recognizing the unsaved number as one that belongs to the hospital. “Hello?” I mumble as I slid out of my chair and started to walk around the kitchen.

“She what? Hang on I’ll be right there!” I turn toward Zelena with panicked eyes and I bend down and place a kiss on Henry’s head. “Zelena stay with Henry. I have to go to the hospital. I’m so sorry. I’ll call you when I know what’s going on!” Zelena only got the chance to nod before I was out the door and in the bug driving towards the hospital.

I get to the hospital, I jump out the car, run through the automatic doors in front of the hospital and race up the stairs to her room. There was no time to wait. When I got into the room, I saw doctors and nurses all hovering around my wife. I walk around to see her pale face glistening with sweat on the edges of her hair and her face. I throw my hand over my mouth and stumble backwards.

“Whale! What exactly happened!?” I cry. I watch as the skinny man came jogging over to me pulling me to the side out of the way of the other nurses.

“Emma had a pulmonary embolism because of all the injuries she sustained from the crash, plus her being static for so long.” I watched as the nurses all file out after getting Emma settled and soon it was just me and Dr.Whale.

“She’s stable now, but she’s much weaker than she was a few days ago. We don’t know how much more her body can take.”

“What are you saying? Is there nothing we can do?” I sob wiping my eyes.

“I’m sorry Doctor Mills, but you should prepare for the worse.” He places a sympathetic hand on my shoulder before leaving the room and shutting the door. I rush over to Emma’s side and place my hand in hers trying to talk through the tears.

“I’m here. I’m here baby. Please don’t give up.” I pull my hand out of hers, standing up and walking over to the wall. I slam my uninjured arm against the wall and I just cry. I was well aware of how unprofessional I was being, but I couldn’t stop. I let out a wail and I let the rest of the emotions out. Soon it was hard to breathe because of the excessive amount of crying I was doing that I started to hiccup. I decide that I needed to compose myself and call Zelena. I move over to the cot and I sit down. I close my eyes and take a couple of minutes to steady my breathing before I called Zelena.

“Hey Regina. Are you okay? What happened?” She questions, worry haunting her tone.

“Emma had a pulmonary embolism. Which means there was a blockage in her lungs from the crash. Can you watch Henry?”

“Of course, yeah yeah. I’ll stay with him as long as you need.”

“Thank you Zelena. Make yourself at home, there are spare clothes in the guest room. You’re welcome to everything in the house.”

“Okay. No worries. I’m here for you.” I end the call and make another.

“Regina? Hello?”

“Hey Mary, you should come down to the hospital tomorrow.” I say through hiccups. The tears had started back up again and I was trying to conceal my sobs by covering my mouth, desperately hoping that they couldn’t tell I was crying.

“Oh my God Regina what happened?”

“She had an embolism. Please just come see her tomorrow. We don’t know how much more time she has.” My voices trembles as the words fall out my mouth and my strength begins to weaken.

“We’ll be there.” I end this call too. Once I was off the phone I was back by her side. The hand of my broken arm resting on her hand and my other caressing the left side of her face.

“Please. Keep fighting. You’re my sunshine.”

“You have to keep fighting. Do it for me. For our son. All our memories. Good and bad.”

“Remember when you fell out that tree when you were twelve? And you bruised your leg so bad you could barely walk. You milked the hell out of it. Ingrid was so mad because you were supposed to attend some fancy wedding with her. She made me stay home and watch you? You had me sneak out the house and buy you a bear claw from Granny’s because your mom specifically said you weren’t allowed to leave since “it hurt so much.” I made quotes in the air before I inhaled a sharp breath and I continued on. “We had so much fun that day. We built pillow forts and watched movies the entire evening. You even convinced me to bake brownies like an hour before your mom was due to come home. God you were freaking out when you heard her car pull up and the pillow fort was still up and all the trash from the bear claws and brownies were still everywhere. Ingrid took one look at you in your panicked state and just laughed.”

____

_“Emma you are such an ass.” She laughed. I looked from Ingrid to Emma, confusion written all over my face._

_“You know I hate weddings. All that sappy stuff. It’s lammmmeeee.” She dramatically dragged out the last word and threw her arm over her face for added emphasis._

_“You couldn’t just sit through one wedding with me? You made me do that boring shit by myself.”_

____

I smile at Emma and slowly shake my head. “Sometimes I would forget that Ingrid was as much of a child as you were.” I wiped at my runny nose with my sleeve, a habit I recently just picked up.

____

_Ingrid made her way through the doorway and threw her keys onto the table by the door. She looked around the house and inwardly chuckled. “I see you tore up the house.” Her eyes scanned the room and fell on the bear claw wrappers. “And you managed to rope Regina into getting you bear claws. Honestly Emma.”_

_Emma looked up at Ingrid and shrugged. “You know me.” She offered up a smile and Ingrid snaked her arm around Emma’s shoulder and gave her a tight squeeze._

_“Yeah. Unfortunately I do. Go clean this mess up. Regina you’re welcome to go home now if you wish.” She peered down at me with her infamous smile and it just confused me even more._

_“Aww man. By myself?” She pouted._

_“Yes. Now go.” She nodded into the direction of the mess and Emma slinked away._

_“S-she’s not in trouble?”_

_“No, I figured she’d pull something like this.” She rolled her eyes and we both watched Emma as she grumbled to herself._

_“My mom would’ve killed me.” I softly chuckled and walked over to grab my bags. Well, I guess I should get going. Thanks for having me.”_

_“Anytime. You know you’re always welcome here whenever you like.” Ingrid walked me over to the door and I said goodbye. I started to walk out the door when Emma called for me._

_“Regina!” Emma raced to the door and threw her arms around my neck. “You weren’t gonna say bye?”_

_“I could only be so lucky.” I chuckled and closed the hug. Emma pulled away and lightly gave my shoulder a light punch and called me a jerk._

_“Ill see you later Emma.”_  
____

“We always had fun Emma. I still want to have fun with you. We had so many plans. Please. We were supposed to renew our vows next year. And go on a road trip after Henry’s graduation. Maybe visit Boston.” I look closely at the woman beside me. I pay extra attention to the tubes going in and out of her body her barely steady breathing, her face growing paler with each day, the bags under her eyes growing bigger, her bones becoming more eager to be seen. I hang my head and I swallow the persistent sob that keeps forcing its way up.

“Please baby.”  
____

“How is she? Me and David have been so worried.” Mary Margaret looks at me with hopeful, endearing eyes as she walks into the hospital room Tuesday morning. All I can do is offer a small smile before pulling her into a hug. She startles at first but I only hug her tighter.

“I’m so sorry Mary Margret. The doctors say it’s only a matter of time. They’re surprised she lasted this long.” I mutter in between sobs. The other woman’s hand makes its way up and down back in a circular pattern and she just chuckles.

“It’s okay sweetheart. They did all they could do. All we can do now is let her know that we’re gonna be here till it’s over.”

I pull away and wipe at my eyes while pulling David into a quick hug. He gives me a reassuring squeeze and leaves it at that. “Thanks for coming. I know Emma would’ve wanted you guys here.”

Mary Margaret gives me a knowing look and moves over towards Emma’s bed and takes a good look at Emma’s face. “Of course.” She turns back towards me and smiles. “So where’s Henry? Is he coming after school?”

“Oh no. He’s actually staying with our new neighbor Zelena.”

“Oh! We actually just met with her to talk about some designs for the new house we’re thinking of buying. She’s a very nice lady, a bit crass but nice nonetheless. Are you sure you wanna leave Henry with a stranger though. If I’m correct she’s only lived here around a week or so.”

We make our way to the chairs that surround the bed and I answer “Yeah. I trust her a lot to be honest. She’s been a big help with Henry and I. It’s nice to have someone I can actually talk to.” I meet their eyes and I can feel myself flush. “No offense. She was just convenient and I don’t know if I could’ve gotten through this hadn’t it been for her.”

Mary Margaret just gives a polite smile and nods. Our eyes collectively fall on Emma and the room grows silent. The reality of the situation filling the room. No one wants to bring up the inevitable so we all just sit and stare. As time moves on the silence becomes deafening and I clear my throat to break the silence and all eyes fall on me.

“Zelena should be here soon actually with Henry. She texted me before you guys came in that she was on her way.” And just like that, as if God had finally been listening, there was a knock on the door followed by Henry’s laugh. As soon as I get up and answer the door I feel Henry’s little arms wrap around my legs and I’m greeted with a smile from Zelena.

“Hi my little Prince. Did you have fun with Zelena?” I place a gentle kiss on his head and I wait for an answer.

“Uh huh. She let me stay up till eleven. Eleven momma can you believe it!? And she ordered pizza and we ate ice cream it was so fun. Can I do it again?” He clasps his hands together and sticks out his lip. I look up at Zelena and give her a small glare before turning back to Henry.

“We’ll see. For now go say hi to the Nolans.” Henry happily skips over to couple and I once again look at Zelena.

“Before you get all mad and overreact. He was really upset after you left without a real explanation. I don’t have kids so I didn’t know how to calm him down. I had to bribe that little monster before he finally calmed down. Also he knocked over my lamp so as payment I would like to come over unannounced for food for a week.” At a loss for words I just chuckle, placing my arm on her back leading her towards the others.

“Mary Margaret, David this is Zelena, though you guys have already met.”

Zelena strides over to the group offering out her hand to shake and Mary Margaret gives off a shy smile.

“Nice to see you again, I just wish it wasn’t due to these circumstances.” David replies with a miniature smile.

“I agree.” Zelena takes the last unoccupied chair and finally sees Emma. Her eyes scan Emma as she lays in the bed, and she gives a tight smile. “Regina you were not kidding about Emma being beautiful.”

Everyone nods in agreement and I grin taking a seat next to Zelena. “Thank you. You should’ve seen her before the accident. She has the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen. And her smile. That smile got us into to quite a bit of trouble.” Everyone chuckles at the little joke and somehow the air feels lighter. Having everyone who cares about you and that you care about all in one room just cleanses the air.

“I believe it.” Zelena answers. “You know, you never told me about the wedding and weddings are like all married people talk about. So spill.”

With that invitation the room lit up everyone sharing their favorite parts of the wedding, from the toasts to Emma’s unfortunate cake to the face accident, it was like everything just melted away. All the problems, the fears and anxiety. Everything. All gone.

______

_“Oh Regina. You look absolutely beautiful.” A familiar voice calls behind me._

_I grabbed the sides of my dress and I turned around, shocked to see Emma’s mother standing in front of the door._

_“Ingrid? What are you doing in here? Aren’t you supposed to be helping Emma?”_

_I watched as Ingrid looked around the empty room. One that should be filled with parents and maybe a bridesmaid or two. We decided we didn’t really need that many people in the wedding. I took one for the team, as I would like to call it. Mary Margaret was Emma’s maid of honor so naturally she would be in Emma’s room helping her get ready. It was going to be a rather small wedding, but yet, I still felt alone. No parents, no siblings. No friends I reminded myself._

_“Well, you know Emma. She’s practically finished getting ready and if she needs anything you know Mary Margaret will come bounding to her beck and call. I would also like to think I’m just as much your mom as I am Emma’s.” She walked behind when I was standing in front of the mirror and sized up the dress. She took a step closer and gently shifted the dress a tiny bit and zipped me up. “I’m sorry Cora isn’t here. Your mother, she’s my best friend and I know you know this more than anybody but, she lets her pride get in the way.”_

_I was well on the verge of tears. I turned my head around and gave Ingrid a watery smile and she placed her hand on the side of my face and wiped the stray tear that had fallen._

_“Hey now. No crying. You’ll ruin your beautiful makeup.” She chuckled and I melted into her hand. “Turn around and let me look at you.” I did as she said and I turned around. I flattened out my dress and just stared at her, waiting for a response. She threw her hands over her mouth and I could see a smile spread through her hands. “Oh you look absolutely stunning.” I watched as she began to lightly cry and she didn’t even try to hide it. She let the tears fall as she smiled, placing her hands over her heart._

_“Thank you Ingrid. For everything. For being there for me when my mother wasn’t, and for being there for me now. Some things never change I guess. I love you.” I sucked in a sob to preserve my makeup and instead I pulled the older woman into a hug. When we pulled apart I watched as she pulled something out of her pocket and walked behind me. We both peered into the mirror in front of us and she smiled._

_“I want you to have this. This was my mother’s. And her mother’s and so on. One day when you have kids or when they get married, I hope you pass this necklace on to them.” She slid her arms over my head and gently laid the necklace on my bear skin. “You look beautiful.” She smiled into the mirror. My hands fell over the necklace and caressed it._

_“I can’t take this. What about Emma?” Ingrid stepped away from the mirror and waved her hand at me._

_“Oh please. You know Emma hates jewelry. I want this necklace to get used. And besides, it suits you. I want you to have it and I won’t take no for an answer.”_

_“Ingrid that means so much to me. Thank you.” I gave a watery laugh as Ingrid put tissues under my eyes to catch the tears. After all the crying was over and the time began to slow down Ingrid wrapped me in one last hug._

____

“That had to be one of the best days of my life. I still have the necklace. Emma and I planned on adopting a girl a little around that time. Of course we ended up choosing Henry instead.” I flash a crooked smile at Henry who was sitting on the opposite side of the bed from me not paying attention, and I did the best I can to avoid crying.

  
“Nonsense. You’re Regina fucking Mills.” She demonstrates a bright grin and I look over at Henry who’s now staring up at me with big eyes, recognizing that a bad word had been said.

I roll my eyes and shake my head at the Nolans who released a slight chuckle and I point at Zelena. “Language. But thank you.” I wave Henry off letting him know that it’s okay and he goes back to doing whatever he’s been doing. _Probably counting the tiles again._

“Anytime. So how did the rest of the wedding go?”

Mary Margaret just laughs. “It started off smooth.”

____

_The wedding music had begun to play and that marked our cue. Ingrid wiped at her face and nose before wrapping her arm in mine._

_“This is it. Are you ready?” She stared at me with a watery smile and suck in a breath._

_“Ready as I’ll ever be.” I squeezed her arm before grabbing my bouquet. I did my best to hold off any unwanted sobs until after I saw Emma. As the music continued on we began to walk towards the chapel, stopping momentarily for the usher to open the door. The few people that were invited had stood up and turned their heads towards me and watched as Ingrid walked me down the aisle. It wasn’t until we had made it to the front of the alter that I could see Emma standing there. She stood in front of the alter in a black suit, complimented with a red tie._

_I watched as she stood there her head looking in the opposite direction, staring at Granny, one of the few licensed officiants in Storybrooke. When I finally caught her eye as I made my way up the steps her face brightened up and she smiled a smile I knew was only reserved for me. The way her cheeks lifted, shrinking her eyes, yet somehow you could still the green of her eyes shine. The music had faded into the background and Ingrid had taken her place among the few that were there. She slid her hand through her curls and closed her eyes. My eyes followed her hands as it made their way up to her face, completely engulfing her face. When the music had stopped and everyone was seated, that’s when she spoke._

_“Oh my gosh. You look beautiful.” She cried removing her face from her palms. Her palms delicately wiping the tears from her face. I scrunched up my face and smiled. We stood only a few feet apart, separated by Granny, but at this moment this was the furthest I’ve ever felt from her. It took all the strength I had to not cross that invisible bridge to get to her and hold her. To call her mine and let the whole world know it._

_Granny started to speak and all attention was directed towards her. “We are gathered here today to join Emma and Regina in a life of mutual commitment. It is only fitting and appropriate that you, the family and friends of Emma and Regina, be here to witness and to participate in their union. For the ideals, the understanding, and the mutual respect which they bring to their life together had their roots in the love and friendship and guidance you have given them. The union of two people makes us aware of the changes brought by time. But the new relationship will continue to draw much of its beauty and meaning from the intimate associations of their past. True marriage begins well before the wedding day, and the efforts of marriage continue well beyond the ceremony's end. A brief moment in time and the stroke of the pen are all that is required to create the legal bond of marriage, but it takes a lifetime of love, commitment, and compromise to make marriage durable and everlasting. Today you declare your commitment to each other before family and friends. Your yesterdays were the path to this moment, and your journey to a future of togetherness becomes a little clearer with each new day."_  
  
I glanced around the small room and smiled at the familiar faces. On Emma’s side sat her mother, her college roommate and her boyfriend and a couple other of her college friends. On my side sat only one. My college roommate Katheryn. I gave a smile at her general direction and faced Emma once again.

_"Emma and Regina, today you choose each other before your family and friends, to begin your new life together. For all the days that follow, you will continue choose each other over and again, in the privacy of your hearts. Let the love and friendship you have with your heart guide you, as you learn and grow alongside each other. Experience the wonders of the world, even as patience and wisdom calm the restless nature that stands before you. Through your new partnership, may you reign victorious over the challenges you may face in your path. Through the comfort of loving arms, may you always find a safe place to call home. Seek from within yourselves the serenity to accept the things you cannot change, the courage to change the things that you must and the wisdom to know the difference. Live each day, one day at a time enjoying your time together, one moment at a time. Seek the wisdom of experience, learning all that you can from each other. Accept hardships as the building blocks of experience. Realizing that accepting both the good and bad are simply a part of being alive. Strive to make as many things right as is humanly possible in your life together. That you may be reasonably happy in the life you share from this day forward" Granny looked at us, pausing for just a moment to collect herself. You could see happiness in her eyes as the cool liquid danced down her face. I knew what she was thinking. She had watched us grow up. From when we were young kids coming in for milkshakes after school, to come our casual teenage dates. We had even met at granny’s once a month while we were away at college and to Granny, we were like her kids. “You May now proceed with the vows.” She said._  
  
Emma pulled out a small piece of paper from her suit pocket and cleared her throat. Her voice wavered as she spoke. "I Emma, take you Regina Mills, to be my wife, my partner in life and my one true love. I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before. I am so grateful to have someone like you in my life. When Ingrid first brought me home, I thought that it would be just another temp house. That I would be thrown away when they found something new. But you, you and Ingrid were the most permanent thing in my life. You became my home away from home and today, you will officially be home. My safe space. At times you may not think you’re strong enough, but together we are. I promise I will always trust you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you through good times and bad. I will love you and only you. Today I give you my heart, and my love, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live." She looked up from behind the paper and gave me the lopsided smile I’ve learned to love.

_“I, Regina, take you, Emma Swan, to be my lawfully wedded wife and my love from this day forward. In the presence of our family and friends, I solemnly vow to be your faithful partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, in joy as well as in sorrow. I have never loved someone as much as I have loved you. I lived for the moments where we were together, so I could hear your laugh and feel your arms around me. It didn’t take me long to realize you were the one fo me.” I paused and let out a tiny sob. I did my best to regain my composure, decrinkling the paper and wiping at my eyes carefully. “When you would call me just to make sure I got home safe or come through my window in the middle of the night because I couldn’t stop crying because my mom said something hurtful. When I had that feeling of never being good enough, you were always there to show me I was. You have been there for me since we were kids and now you’re stuck with me. Never once did 7th grade Regina think she would have a best friend like you. And to be able to marry my best friend is the greatest gift you could ever give me. I promise to love you unconditionally, to support you in your goals, to honor and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to cherish you for as long as we both shall live.”_

____

“The vows were cute, you and Emma were totally made for each other but really? That Granny lady had one job and she messed it up.” Zelena dramatically scoffs and throws her arms up causing everyone to throw her a questioning glance.

I get up from my seat to stretch and pour myself some water. “What do you mean?” I call over my shoulder, pouring the water into the small cups. I decide to pour one for a quiet Henry who moved to the cot under the window. He gratefully takes the water and goes back to playing with his toys as I take a seat.

“Well, I mean how hard was it to say Queerly beloved, we are gathered here togay. Like come on. It writes itself.” Zelena chuckles after her little rant but all I could do is choke on my water. After several seconds of incessant coughing and Zelena smacking my back I was finally able to collect myself. I look around the room at Henry and he’s just laying there playing, paying no mind to the adults or what’s going on around him.

“Damn it Zelena. Really?”

Zelena just shrugs and Mary Margret awkwardly chuckles and flashes an uncomfortable smile. “The vows were beautiful. I cried for both of them.”

“Everything makes you cry.” I snarked. She jokingly rolls her eyes and waves me off.  
____

_Granny looks at us with tearful eyes and hands us the rings. "You have for each other special rings; symbols that love is the most precious element in your life together. The ring has no beginning and no ending, which symbolizes that the love between you will never cease. You place these rings upon each other’s fingers as a visible sign of your vows this day, which will make you wife and wife." We each held our respected rings as she continued to talk._

_“Emma. Repeat after me. "I give you this ring as a symbol of my love for you. Let it be a reminder that I am always by your side and that I will always be a faithful partner to you.”_

_Emma copied what Granny said as she slipped the ring over my finger. "I give you this ring as a symbol of my love for you. Let it be a reminder that I am always by your side and that I will always be a faithful partner to you." When she successfully placed the ring on my finger she looked down at me and winked._

_“Now Regina. Repeat After me. I give you this ring as a symbol of my love for you. Let it be a reminder that I am always by your side and that I will always be a faithful partner to you."_

_I shakily reached out for Emmas hand and slowly slid the ring on her finger. “I give you this ring as a symbol of my love for you. Let it be a reminder that I am always by your side and that I will always be a faithful partner to you."_

_“And now, by the power vested in me by the State of Maine, I hereby pronounce you wife and wife. Emma you may now kiss your bride." Emma gently brushed the stray hair out of my face, sliding her hand behind my ear before pressing her lips to mine. The kiss was so gentle yet passionate. To my surprise Emma’s other arm snaked around my waist and she leaned further into the kiss, causing my leg to rise as she dipped me. When we broke apart Granny grabbed our left hands and placed them together before speaking once more._

_"Family and Friends I present to you for the first time Emma and Regina Swan-Mills.”_

____

“I think my favorite part of the wedding was the look on David’s face when Mary Margaret caught the bouquet.”

“Oh god, did he die.” Zelena wheezes.

“Just about.” I smirk.

“Oh shut up. No he didn’t.” Mary Margaret rolls her eyes in annoyance and David’s eyes got slightly bigger and he nodded his head. When Mary Margaret caught him she gave him a swat on his arm.

“Come on Henry lets get a snack.” She barks. Henry happily jumps up and takes her hand. Before they left the room she grabs David’s arm as well and mutters a lets go.

Zelena looks over at me and laughs hysterically. “Oh Jesus. She’s so easy to get riled up. Anyway. How did the rest of the wedding go?”

“It went well. We did the father daughter dance and when it was time for cake Emma accidentally tripped over her shoes and smooshed part of it with the side of her face, but over all it was beautiful.  
____

_Emma slipped her hand into mine and slowly walked. Us down to the small dance floor where in the middle of the floor, Ingrid resided._

_“What’s going on?” I quirked my brow at Emma. This didn’t happen at the rehearsal._

_As we made our way over to Ingrid, who must have recognized the confusion on my face judging by the same devious grin Emma developed, Emma responded. “It’s the daddy daughter dance, and since neither of us have fathers and Ingrid is basically like your mother, I thought it would be a cute surprise if we all danced together?” Her head shrinked into her neck as her statement began to transform into a question. “What do you think?”_

_I looked at both Emma and Ingrid and the only thing I could do was hug them. The dance was quick, all three of us huddled into one awkward circle as we slowly made our way around the small dance floor. I didn’t know it at the time but I was crying. I had silently cried into Ingrid’s chest the majority of the dance. I couldn’t have gotten luckier being accepted into such a loving family._

____

I woke up early the next morning because I had to use the bathroom unusually bad. I had just finished drying my hands when I heard the heart monitor in Emma’s room beeping dangerously loud. I threw open the bathroom door and saw Emma having another seizure in the bed and before I could get to her, she fell limp and flatlined. There were no doctors in the room yet so I did what I was trained to do. I hopped up on the bed doing my best to mind her numerous casts and tubes and I started giving her CPR while screaming for the nurses. As I pumped I could feel the pain in my arm from all the pressure but I kept going until Whale entered the room.

“Nurse Arendale I need you to escort Doctor Mills out of here.”

“Yes doctor.”The nurse snakes her arm around my shoulder attempting to lead me out the door.

“No. Don’t you dare fucking touch me I’m staying right here. Why would I leave? My wife flatlined!” I push her arm off of me and I push away, moving closer to the bed.

“Regina. I’ve known you ever since you started working here. We’re friends and I know you’ve been on edge since Emma came to the hospital and I let you off every time you said something harsh to me because I care about you, but you know very well that in this case you can’t stay here and you can’t be the one doing this job because your judgement is clouded! So right now you need to get out of this room and let the doctors do their job.”

I compose myself, sighing because she was right. I plac my hand on my colleague and give her the best smile I could muster. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Thank you.” I rub my temples as I walk out the room. My wife’s fate was in the hands of those doctors. I run my trembling fingers through my hair as I take a seat at the end of the hallway. I didn’t know what else to do. I cradle my arms around my waist and I just rocke back and forth. Periodically taking a peak at the door in the hopes of seeing the doctor come out with good news.

Fifteen minutes passed before Whales’ face resurfaced. I jump up from my seat as he resides in front of me and I wait. I wait for any hint of a smile, any hint of relief, anything. But he only looks up at me with a dejected face and shakes his head. “I’m sorry Regina.”

“W-what?”

“I’m sorry. She didn-”

“No!” I gasp and my hand once again found its place over my mouth. I race past him and threw open the door to Emma’s room where there, in fact, she lay, lifeless. I couldn’t’t handle the emotions running trough me so I bound out the door, past the desks where my coworkers sit, and into the nearest bathroom on our floor. I slam the door shut and quickly lock it. I slam my hands against the only sink over and over again, unwilling to acknowledge the pain shooting through my broken arm. In irritation I yank off my sling and throw it across the small bathroom. What starts off as a muffled cry manifests itself into a desperate yelp. I knew people can hear me but I couldn’t stop. My body wouldn’t let me. I go on to cry for what felt like forever until my voice went hoarse and when nothing was left I collapse onto the floor. In the midst of the silence there was a knock at the door.

“Regina.” A soft voice coos. “It’s Elsa. Can I come in?”

“No. Go away.” I croak. I lightly begin to bang my head against the wall and release a cry of defeat.

“Okay well, I went to maintenance and stole the key to get into this bathroom so I’m coming in. I’m coming as a friend, not a nurse.” I say nothing as the knob turns silently as the door begins to crack open. Pretty soon the door was open and Elsa slinks in and sits next to me.

“I’m sorry Regina. I really am. I know you’re going to get a lot of these but I want you to know that I’m here for you and if you need any coun-“

“No!” I shout. “I’m not going to counseling. I’m sick of this bullshit! Counseling isn’t going to bring my wife back. It’s not going to bring Henry’s mom back!” I bark. Elsa sighs and engulfs my shoulders with her arm, pulling me into her. I don’t fight it. I just rest my head on her shoulder and cry.

“Is there someone you want to call.”

“Zelena. My neighbor. Henry’s with her. And Emma’s friends.” She nods and I let out a sniff as I slip the phone out of my pocket and dial Mary Margaret’s number.

“Hello?” A chipper voice rings through the bathroom.

“Hey Mary Margaret. I just wanted to let you know that Emma passed.” I sigh into the phone.

“Oh sweetie, I’m so sorry. Is there something we can do?”

“Come down to the hospital? You can say your goodbyes.”

“We’ll leave in an hour.” I click the red button and scroll through my contacts until I reach Zelena’s. I click call and the phone barely gets a chance to ring before I’m met with a British voice.

“Regina?”

“Hey.” I sniff once more as I answer, my breathing starting to hitch.

“You sound like you’ve been crying. What’s wrong?”

“E-Emma. She’s-“ That was all I had to say before Zelena cuts me off.

“I’m so sorry love. Is there anything I can do?”

“No. I’m coming home around 3. I’m gonna have to talk to Henry after you pick him up from school.”

“Okay dear. I know you’re going to go through a hard time so if you ever need anything. I’ll be there.”

As I hold the phone up to my ear everything becomes fuzzy and I zone out.

“Regina?” She calls.

“Yeah?”

“It’s gonna be okay.”

“I know. I’ll be home soon.” The line goes dead and a once quiet Elsa reaches for my hand and gives it a squeeze.

“Come on.” She stands up pulling me with her and the next thing I know I’m no longer in the bathroom and I’m outside Emma’s room. She nods at the door and takes a step back from the room, waiting for me to enter. I had taken classes on grief and how to console someone who’s lost a loved one and I’ve spent plenty of long nights speaking with patients trying to console them, but I never thought I’d have to do the same thing with myself. I don’t know how to do it. They never taught us how to deal with the pain ourselves because we always think ‘That’ll never happen to us.’

My hand trembles as I twist the door know and when I enter the room the deafening sound of silence echos through the room. I approach the side of the bed and kneel, resting my head on the edge of her waist, while my hand clings to the cloth that lay under my wife, and I cry. It didn’t take long for my emotions to change and I furrow my brows together and yank my head up coming face to face with my wife.

“WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME! YOU PROMISED ME EMMA. YOU PROMISED. YOU SAID YOU WOULD NEVER LEAVE ME. YOU TOLD ME WE WOULD ALWAYS HAVE EACH OTHER! NOW I’M ALL ALONE! I NEED YOU! HENRY NEEDS YOU! WE ALL NEED YOU!” I shout.

“You promised.” I whisper into her side, my hands clenching the sheets tighter. There was a sound echoing through the room but I couldn’t place it. My head was ringing from all the crying and yelling. I wrap my hand around hers and I place a soft kiss to her hand.

“I don’t know how to continue my life without you. You are my life. For the past twenty or so years I’ve known you Emma Swan, you’ve always been there for me. Meeting you was the best thing to ever happen to me. It’s not fair that our time, your time, was cut short. We were supposed to watch Henry grow up together. Meet his first girlfriend, send him off to college. We were supposed to grow old together. Wreak havoc in the home Henry puts us in. Now I have to do all those things alone. I need you.” I wipe the stray tear falling down my cheek with my shoulder and I sucked in a breath. “Please. God. Don’t take my sunshine away!!”, I yell, looking directly at the ceiling.

“Hey. Stop yelling at me.” A soft voice calls.

I lay there with my head still on her waist and I just stay still. As time seemed to stand still I begin to fade in and out of reality. The reality where Emma wasn’t dead but now I was back. That sound echoing through the room became familiar. It was the heart monitor. It was beeping again. I look up at the beeping machine and I gasp.

“Regina?”

I jerk my head towards Emma and I just stare at her. Am I already going crazy. Her eyes were closed but her chest slowly started to rise and fall. That was when I felt it. I turn my head swiftly and I peer down at my hand. There lay Emmas’ hand lightly applying pressure as if to say,_ ‘I’m here’._

“E-Emma?”

“Regina.” She calls back.

“Emma oh my God.”

I leap up from the kneeling position I was just in and my hand is immediately on her face. I move her face side to side watching carefully as Emma’s eyes follow me. I move my hands down to her neck and begin to check her pulse. I run my fingers through my hair as I run out the room and call for a nurse. It didn’t take long before nurses and doctors filed in, each one trying to get a look at the once dead woman. I stand behind the doctors with my hand covering my forehea.

“Well it’s not completely impossible but it is very rare.” Whale states while writing on a clip board. He looks away from his clipboard momentarily to place a hand on my shoulder. “Looks like you were right, your wife’s a fighter. We’re going to keep an eye on her for a few days and run all the necessary tests and images to make sure she’s stable and then we’ll decide when she’ll be able to go home. You are gonna wanna purchase a wheelchair due to her broken ribs and leg because she wouldn’t be able to use crutches in her condition, but of course I’m sure you were already aware of that. That’s about all I have for you right now, we’ll check back in, in an hour. We’ll leave you two alone.” As he finishes whatever he was writing, everyone stalks out muttering amongst themselves. The room quiets down and it was just me and Emma. I stagger over to Emma’s bed and I glance at her. There’s a smile occupying her face. It’s faint, but it’s still there.

I bury my head gently into her shoulder. “I thought you were gone.” I mumble. I grasp at her sheets and sob, only this time it felt good. I was happy. She made it. I can feel Emma trying to move and I pull away. “Lie still. Your ribs are still slightly broken but your arm and leg are healing nicely but you’re gonna have to take it easy.” I explain. She nods, her eyes beginning to drop. In a matter of time her eyes were closed yet again. In a panic I turned towards the heart monitor but noticed that it was still beeping. She’s asleep, for now.

I slip out the room and head straight for Doctor Whales’ office. As I open the door I can see him with his feet on the desk scrolling through his phone. I scoff and when inside I shut the door behind me, startling the man who clearly had no knowledge of my presence.

“Ah Regina. I didn’t hear you come in.” He grumbles, getting up from behind his desk. “What can I do you for?”

“Emma went to sleep. You’re her doctor, you need to be monitoring her to make sure she doesn’t fall back into a coma.” I order.

“Of course your majesty. And what will you be doing?” He replies adding a bit of snark to the comment.

Rolling my eyes I answer. “She’s going to be here for a couple days so I’m going home to grab her some things and I’m coming back with Henry. I’m going to be back in less than thirty minutes and when I get back I expect you to either be in her room monitoring her, or handing me a report on how she’s doing.” Without another word I’m out the office and halfway back to room. I smirk as I pass by Elsa, who was giving me an amused look, on my way to the elevator. I spent the next couple of hours talking to doctors and trying to find a suitable wheelchair for Emma.

____

Once at the car I wasted no time hopping in and driving home. I pull up in front of Zelena’s house and jump out the car, sprinting towards her door. I rapidly knock on her door and I don’t stop until Zelena opens the door with a shocked face.

“Regina? What’s going on. You’re freaking me out.” She pulls me by my arm into the house and sits me on the couch. “Tell me what happened.” I start to hyperventilate as Henry comes bounding into the room, jumping on my lap.

“Okay well you know I told you Emma died?” Zelena vigorously nods her head while Henry’s face shoots up and looks at me.

“Mommy died!” He hollers. His face begins to turn pink and I know he’s about to start crying. I held his face and spoke softly doing my best to calm him down when I wasn’t so calm myself. Zelena gives me a look like I just sprouted two heads and I just ignore it.

“I know it doesn’t make sense. But she’s alive. She woke up. She’s stable for now and she’ll be coming home as soon as the doctors make sure everything’s okay. I know it’s hard to understand because things like this don’t normally happen, but it’s possible.” I look at Henry and Zelena who give me confused looks.

“So she’s not dead?” She questions.

“No.”

Henry looks up at me and slides off my lap. “Then why did you say she was dead? That’s lying.” He points his finger at me and even at such a confusing time I couldn’t help but smile.

“It’s a bit difficult to understand mijo. You’ll understand when you’re older.” I grab him by his waist and kiss his nose causing him to giggle. I wrap him in a big bear hug and I smother him with kisses until he manages to pull away.

“So can we go see her?” Zelena begs. As we sit on the couch and I look at Zelena who’s looking at me with expectant eyes all I could think to do was hug her. I throw my arms around her neck and I just hug her. I didn’t say anything for awhile. I just hugged her.

“Thank you. You were there for me every step of the way. I just met you and you welcomed us into your home. You watched my son, you brought him to the hospital, you’ve taken him to and from school. What sane person does that? You told me to have hope and you never let me lose it and all I can say is thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now let’s go meet this wife who’s supposedly gonna be my best friend.”

____

“Just open the damn door Regina.” She hisses. We’ve been hovering outside her door for a couple of minutes now, my hand refusing to open the door out of fear and Zelena and Henry become impatient.

“Yeah I wanna see mommy!” Henry shouts.

“Henry lower your voice.” I turn and point at Zelena. “You stop exciting him. This is a hospital and I’m scared.”

“Oh for the love of all things queer.” Zelena nudges me out of the way and opens the door. This gives Henry the go ahead and he leaps into the room running towards the bed, where Emma was now laying in an upright position.

“Hey Kid!” Emma calls, her voice hoarse. We all crowd around the bed and Henry settles on a spot at the foot of the bed. The room once dark without any type of noise save for the heart monitor was now filled with light and noise from the Tv that one of the nurses must have put on low. I reach for the remote and I turn the volume down.

“Hi mommy! I missed you.”

“I missed you to kid. It’s been awhile.” She chuckles and Henry slowly inches towards Emma and settles close to her side, mindful of her tubes after a reminder from me. She finally notices Zelena’s presence and cocks a brow. “Who’s this?”

“This is Zelena. Our new neighbor and my friend.” I give Zelena a reassuring smile and turn back to Emma who looks like she has a slight smirk on her face. “What?”

“You made a friend.” She wiggles her eyebrows causing a laugh from both Zelena and Henry. I however did not laugh.

“Unbelievable. You’re awake for about an hour and you’re already harassing me. Yes I made a friend. Stop teasing.”

“You know for your first day back from the dead, you’re pretty cheeky.” Zelena chimes in. We all share a little laugh before the moment is interrupted by Emma’s cough. I jump up and rush to her side.

“You need to take it easy for the next few days. Zelena’s gonna look out for the wheelchair I ordered that’s supposed to come either tomorrow or Friday. I’m gonna start taking Henry to school and picking him up again. Maybe brining him here a bit before dropping him of at Zelena’s. It’s gonna be like that until you come home, which is hopefully soon. I was talking to the doctors earlier and they’re thinking you can come home in 3 to 4 days if all the tests and images results come out normal.”

Emma sleepily provides a smile before puckering up her lips and I lean over placing a soft kiss on them, then her forehead. We all watch as Emma’s eyes closed for the the second time today and then all the weight and pain that was once looming over me seemed to fade away. “She’s gonna be okay.” I thought.

We all slip out of the room as Emma drifts off to sleep and huddle outside.

“I’m gonna stay with her tonight but I’ll be there in the morning to take Henry to school. That is, if that’s okay with you?”

Zelena just smiles and nods. “Of course, though one of these days you’re gonna have to help me get into the dating scene.” She grins.

“Of course. As soon as Emmas home Henry will be stuck with us and you’re free to meet new people.” I giggle.

“Then it’s a deal. Let’s go ya little monster. Say goodnight to momma.”

Henry runs up and gives me a hug and I squeeze him tightly. “Goodnight momma.” With a kiss to his forehead he hops away, hand in hand with Zelena until they’re out of sight.

Around thirty minutes later I see Mary Margaret and David rounding the corner, their faces dropping in despair. They engulf me in a hug and Mary Margaret brushes my hair out of my face. “I’m so sorry Regina. I can’t imagine what you must be feeling.” David hands me another pot of flowers with a note attached stating_ ‘Sorry for your loss’ _and I cringe at the sentiment.

“I know this is going to sound odd but, she’s alive. Like she’s awake. It’s considered a medical miracle, but nonetheless she’s here. She’s resting right now but if you want to go in and see her you can.”

“Oh my God Regina that’s great!” David cheers. They follow me into the room and Mary Margaret all but screams when she sees Emma. She turns around and quickly hugs David before scurrying over to the bed.

“I can’t believe it.” She whispers.  
____

It was a long night filled with Emma waking up and falling back to sleep. With the constant coming and going of the nurses and occasionally Whales, it became increasingly difficult to fall asleep. As night turned into day I gave up any hope I had of falling asleep and went to the bathroom to clean myself up for the day. I waited until Emma woke up so I could let her know where I would be going and when I would be back and then I was on my way to take Henry to school after a quick stop at home to grab some of Emma’s belongings.  
____

“Henry! Your mom’s here!” Zelena shouts from the bottom of the staircase. Zelena had informed me days ago that she began converting her guest bedroom into a room for Henry so when he had to stay with her he felt more at home and that warmed my heart. Henry is a naturally friendly person but for him to take so kindly to a stranger so quick was amazing because it really saved me time. I no longer had to do deep background searches on the teenagers that came into my home. For some reason I completely trust Zelena, but that’s not to say I didn’t do a background search on her.

Henry walks down the steps and throws his arms around me. “I’m ready momma! Do I get to see mommy today?” He beams.

“Of course mijito.” This in return makes Henry incredibly happy and he gives Zelena a quick hug before bolting out the door screaming ‘I get to see mommy’ all the way to the car. After an exchange of of looks between me and Zelena we’re on our way to school. Henry wiggles the entire way there with excitement and it brings the biggest smile to my face that I couldn’t seem to wipe off.

We pull up to the school and Henry slides his hand into mine skipping all the way to his classroom. I try my hardest to keep up with the energetic boy but eventually he must have gotten tired of being held back so he releases the grasp he has on my hand and skips ahead. The classroom door is wide open and you can hear the loud screams of laughter as you begin to get closer. The teacher greets us as soon as we walk through the door and Henry immediately throws his backpack down and jogs off to play with his friends.

“Good Morning Dr. Mills. How’s Emma?” The teacher questions, curiosity spewing in her voice.

“She’s fine actually. She woke up yesterday but she’ll be under a watchful eye at the hospital for a couple of days. Thank you for asking.” I sign my name and the date on the sign in sheet that lay open on the counter by the door and place the pen back in the cup where I grabbed it.

“That’s amazing. I’m sure Henry’s more than thrilled.” She beams.

“Oh yeah. She’s all he can talk about. I should be going, I’m on my way to the hospital.” I stride out the room waving a cheerful goodbye to Henry and start walking to the car.

The drive to the hospital was quick and peaceful. For the first time in forever the drive to the hospital was one where I wasn’t worried about arriving too late and entering a silent room. My wife was alive and in a couple of days she’d be coming home. A bed that at one point cradled a depressed woman would now hold two women. The feeling of hope had finally been restored. I pull into my assigned parking spot in the back of the hospital making sure to grab Emma’s bag and make my way through the double doors, the familiar smell of sanitation and cold air greets me.

I walk through the hallways with a new stride. My confidence finally showing. I felt like myself. I splash a smile to all my co workers and even stop to give Elsa a hug and then I’m on my way to Emma’s room. Taking the stairs up to Emma’s floor instead of the elevator for the first time in weeks felt like a win. I’ve been so exhausted but Emma being awake just gave me the proper motivation I needed to not give up.

  
When I walked into Emma’s room I saw her sitting up right watching TV while eating jello. The closer you walked to the bed the more empty jello containers you could see. Emma doesn’t notice my presence until she finally moves the jello cup away from the black hole that is her mouth.

“Looks like you’re healing nicely.” I scoff grabbing the empty cups from off her bed and the floor. “You literally just woke up from a coma and you’ve already managed to turn this room into a mess.”

“Well hello to you too.” She wipes the jello from her mouth and purses her lips. Knowing full well I couldn’t stay upset at her I lean into the kiss and I can feel her press a smile against my mouth. And I smile back, shifting my head so our foreheads were now touching.

“I missed you.” I whisper into the air. Emma manages to lay one arm over my back and her thumb slowly starts to caress it.

“I know.” She mutters. I place my arm to the side of her face and when I closed my eyes to melt into the warmth I felt a lone tear escape. It slid down my face and fell onto Emma’s face. My eyes flutter open and I see Emma’s jade eyes peering into mine, a grin plastered on her face. “Don’t cry. I told you we would always get through it together.”

I pull away from her and dab at my eyes. “That you did. You’re very big on your word but you could’ve woken up sooner.”

“I like the suspense.” She jokes happily. When her eyes met mine something in her changed and her smile dropped into a frown and she spoke. “I’m sorry Regina. This was all my fault.” She admits. Something about the way she struggled to look at me made me feel worse. Eye contact was non existent at this point. Emma’s arm was now gripping the side handles of the bed, her knuckles turning white from the pressure. Her heart monitor begins to speed up as she fights back an obvious panic attack.

“Emma. Listen to me when I say it’s okay. I’m okay, you’re okay, Henry’s okay. You do not need to keep punishing yourself. This-“ I gesture towards her in the bed, “is punishment enough. Yes you did something stupid. Who hasn’t? The driver you hit wasn’t injured at all. You took most of the damage. I need you to calm down. This isn’t good for you.”

“I broke your arm Regina! Now you can’t work. I can’t work. How are we gonna pay our bills? That house is huge! I asked to see a report on you and I messed up your spine! I was reckless Regina and look what happened. I almost died. I almost left you and Henry alone! How are you so okay with everything?” She cries.

“How am I okay with everything? Emma I spent two weeks in the hospital begging for you to wake up. Crying over you. Talking to you, doing anything I could to hopefully get a sign that you would wake up and come home to us. I was mad at first. Mad you could fucking leave us like that. I watched you die.” I roar back. The emotions seep out of me and I fight not to cry. As she stares back at me her monitor begins to slow back down. “So when you woke up,” my voice trembles and dies down, “I felt nothing but relief. I can’t imagine a life without you.” My eyes burn. And my face begins to sting from the tears. I walk to the other side of the bed and I slowly climb on top of the bed and scoot next to Emma. I spoon into Emma and carefully nuzzle my head into her neck. “I wouldn’t want to live without you. I understand you’re upset, but I’d be more upset, I definitely wouldn’t be okay if you died.”

I can feel Emma’s tears trickle down my face so I carefully prop myself up and I wipe her tears. Emma sucks in a breath, speaking softly. “I was supposed to be there to protect you.” Her cheeks turn red and I examine her face as her eyes well up with tears.

“Emma, if you had died, then you wouldn’t be there to protect me. You stayed in the hospital for nearly three weeks fighting, just so you could wake up. That’s protecting me. Protecting my heart and my feelings. Protecting our family and the wonderful environment you helped create for our son. So please, listen to me when I say I forgive you and I just want you to come home to us.” I press my lips to her cheek and lightly kiss her. Satisfied, Emma lets a soft smile take over her face.

“Can we stay like this? It feels nice.” She mutters, placing her hand on my legs and giving me a reassuring squeeze. I snuggle safely into her side, making sure I leave a small gap for her healing ribs, and lay my head on her shoulder.

“You’re my sunshine Regina.”

“You’re my sunshine too Emma.”

____

Emma’s been home for three days after being released on Saturday and she’s healing nicely and taking complete advantage of having others do stuff for us. Mary Margaret and David visited us on Monday and babied Emma the entire day. Zelena came over yesterday and hung out with us, but she didn’t baby Emma making the entire day very interesting.

____

“Zelena can you get me water?” Emma requested, throwing a smirk Zelena’s way. Zelena rolled her eyes in irritation because that was the fifth time Emma asked her to do something for her in the past thirty minutes.

She crossed her arms and stared Emma dead in the eyes, a scowl replacing the smile that was just occupying her face. “No. You can get it yourself. If you can race Henry in that bloody chair you can surely get yourself some water.”

Emma puffed out her lower lip and widened her eyes, clasping her hands together before speaking in a voice that resembled a child’s. “But I’m injured. You wouldn’t make an injured woman get some water would you?”

“Damn right, so you can roll down that walkway and grab a bottle, I moved them so they would be in your reach. Go on speed racer.” Zelena shooed her away with a smirk and her eyes gleamed with satisfaction. Emma grumbled to herself before she started to roll her wheels in the direction of the kitchen. As the whole situation went down I didn’t know whether to laugh at the annoyance written across Emma’s face or tell Zelena to play nice.

I point at Zelena and mouth for her to play nice and she throws her arms up in surrender when Emma comes rolling back she stuck her tongue out at Zelena and faces me. “Some best friend she is. Won’t even grab your beautiful wife a water bottle.” She turned to Zelena and shook her head invoking a cackle from the other woman.

“You two are too much. I feel like I live with two kids whose annoying friend comes over all the time.” I grumbled. For some reason the other women thought that was funny and laughed causing me to roll my eyes. “Grow up.” Instead of hindering their laughter they only laugh more. I pinch the bridge of my nose and sigh. _“Children, I’m surrounded by children.”_


	2. Epilogue

Its been half a year since Emma’s accident and Halloween was just around the corner. During the summer my car was fixed and Emma’s ribs healed, her leg and arm were out of the cast but she still needs to be very careful when she dohs anything that would exert her or could cause her any discomfort. She had spent the majority of her healing process investing all her time in binge watching Netflix and taking care of Henry while he was on summer break, sometimes with Zelena’s company, while I was at work. I was able to start going back to work about a week before Emma got the okay from Doctor Whale to start taking short walks but my first week away from Emma had given me major anxiety. When I wasn’t taking shifts at work the Swan-Mills family, and sometimes Zelena, spent the majority of the summer at the beach. I watched as Zelena and Emma’s relationship flourished, and we all grew closer, in some ways adopting Zelena into our little family. So much so that Henry had begun to call her Auntie Zee, which in Zelena’s book was her biggest victory.

____

_“Okay see ya.” Emma hung up the phone after calling Zelena to make sure she was still going to meet us at the beach and entered the bathroom where I had been fumbling with tassels on my bathing suit._

_"Come here. Lemme help you." She called, beckoning me to come closer with her hand. I advanced over to her side of the bathroom and turned around to allow her to properly tie the tassels. She moved my hair over my shoulders and began tying. "Make a teepee. Come inside. Pull down tight so we can hide. Around the mountain... here we go! Here's my arrow. Here's my bow." She mumbled softly in my ear._

_I turned to face her and gave her an unamused face. "Really Emma?"_

_She chuckled and just shrugged, pulling the tassels one last time to ensure that the strings were nice an tight to avoid any trauma for our six year old son. "Hey, it helps."_

_"Sometimes I wonder whether I married an adult or a child."_

_Ignoring my comment, she began to fix my hair, bringing it back to where it belongs, behind my neck. As her breath sent chills down my spine, she slid her arms around my stomach as if she were familiarizing her fingertips with my skin and brought my back to her stomach. "Careful dear. That's a slippery slope." I said, releasing a deep breathy laugh. She smiled against my skin and gripped my sides with her fingertips and spun me around. A slight gasp escaped from my mouth and she just replied with a smirk. "Emma. We have to get ready." I whispered._

_She pressed her index finger up to my lips and laughed. I couldn't help but smile in return. Her bubbly laugh would set off an involuntary reaction. I brought my arms around her neck and rested my head on her chest, breathing in and out to the pace of her heart beat drumming loudly through my ears. She began to rub circles on my back and I hummed to the contact. "Emma, you need to get ready." I mumbled, my eyes struggling to remain open at the relaxing touch._

_"No. I just want to hold you for a bit." A few more seconds passed before I tried to break contact, but Emma only held me a tad bit tighter. She didn't let go of me, she only laughed. We really needed to get ready so we could be there on time and she was making it impossible so I removed my hands from her neck and tickled her._

_"Regina! Stop!"She yelped. "I'll let go." "Please." Her sentences got shorter and shorter with each breath as she tried to remove my hands. She begged and begged, but I was relentless. "I have to pee." She cried.   
That was enough to stop me in my tracks. I pulled away and looked her up and down, a playful scowl taking ownership of my face. "Gross, not on my floor." I mocked her and began to walk away and called over my shoulder. "Get your ass ready Emma or I'm going without you."_

_"You wouldn't."_

_“Henry would be happy to go with just me as long as his favorite person Zelena shows up.”_

_" You wouldn’t." She challenged as she squinted her eyes and placed her hands on her hips._

_"Then get ready."_

_Once we woke Henry up and got him fed and dressed we headed straight for the beach and parked. We all climbed out of the car and I left Emma to grab the stuff out of the trunk of my car._

_“Okay so you can put our blanket right here, and just set the food there, and prop up the umbrella and we’ll be done setting up.” I directed pointing to each spot so Emma knew exactly where everything went. Henry stood to the side watching as Emma set everything up._

_“We?” She grumbled laying down the blanket so she could set the ice box down, the umbrella slipping out of her hands. She set down the ice box freeing up her hands so she could firmly place the umbrella in the sand afterwards wiping the sweat from her forehead._

_“I’m sorry what was that?”_

_"Nothing. Nothing." She called as she pulled the food out of the ice box._

_"Mhm." I chuckled._

_After Emma set everything up, I laid my body down against the warm towel as I watched Emma stare off at the scenery, Henry finding a place next to me. I continued to watch Emma as the iridescent waves crashed onto the sand only to retract and do it over and over again. There were few people on the beach at ten am which made it the perfect time to go. The sun shined against the sand and created a glow. The sea air entered my nose and began to relax my heartbeat, causing me to relax in the sand. I looked at Emma who was still standing in front of us, taking it all in. This was her first time leaving the house since the accident. She stood there in her cute white one-piece that showed just enough, while still being covered in her beige leather jacket. I look her up and down, admiring her build. I smirked to myself as she turned around, giving me a questioning look._

_"What's so funny?"_

_"Oh nothing. Come lay down with me."_

_She smiled as she slid onto the the other spot next to me after she ruffled Henry’s hair and laid on her back. I repositioned my body so that I was on my side and I laid my newly healed arm on her pale skin and stroked her toned stomach._

_“When do we eat?” She called._

_I rolled my eyes at the obvious mood killer and answered. “When Zelena gets here.”_

_“I want to eat momma.” Henry wHines, tugging on my arm._

_“Yeah. Tell your friend to hurry up.” Emma happily joked._

_“Oh, so now she’s my friend? If I do recall, you two were pretty buddy busy watching Henry.”_

_“Yeah well, she’s your friend when she’s late.” She retorted._

_I rolled my eyes once again and was about to combat her comment when Henry jumped up, startling us both. “Aunty Zee!” He called, running off from his spot and greeting Zelena with a hug. She picked up the almost seven-year-old boy and made her way over to us. She stopped in front of the blanket and slid her sunglasses to the top of her head._

_“Well don’t you two look cozy.” She snarked._

_“Let’s eat.” Emma called, ignoring Zelena’s comment._

_“Nice to see your appetite hasn’t changed Swan.” She remarked, trying to coax a reaction from Emma._

_“Glad to see your hair’s back to normal. Your roots were looking a little brown there.” Emma replied, covering her mouth to hide her snicker. Zelena gave Emma a slight shove and laughed at the comment._

_The next thirty minutes consisted of everybody eating and prepping to get into the water. Emma dowsed herself in sunscreen before doing the same to a fair skinned Henry, Zelena following suit. After everyone put on the sunscreen and Emma blew up Henry’s floaties as well as Zelena’s, Emma finally gave the okay. "Let's swim."_

_"I’ll be right here. The water looks cold. I’ll watch you guys though." I said._

_Zelena grabbed Henry’s hand and they made their way to the water, Emma staying behind. She stared at me with crossed arms. “How does water look cold Regina?”_

_“I don’t know. It just does.”_

_“You’re getting in.” She commanded._

_“No.” I whined, digging my feet into the sand to add emphasis to my resistance._

_"Yes."_

_"Emma I swear to God." I warned. The warning was not enough and she just laughed in a condescending manner as she grabbed my wrist._

_"No. Emma. I will never speak to you again."_

_"Yes, you will."_

_I did everything I could. I hit her hand, I dug my heels into the sand, but it was hopeless. Emma was obviously way stronger than me, even with her previous injury, and everything happened so fast. The next thing I knew, my feet were off the ground and Emma was headed towards the water. I fought to be put down as she entered the area where Henry and Zelena were playing. My screams grabbed their attention and they all started to root for Emma._

_"Emma put me down."_

_"Okay." That was it. I yelped as I was thrown into the freezing water._

_I rose up from the water with a glare on my face and everyone cheered. Henry cheered the loudest and doggie paddled over to Emma who picked him up and placed him on her side. "Hey don't be mad at me. You said told me to put you down." She teased._

_"That's not what I meant and you know it." I groaned and pushed my hair out of my eyes and wiped the salt water off of my face. She laughed and Henry jumped from her waist and splashed Zelena. They began to lightly have a little war and Emma came up to me and placed a swift peck on my lips. I couldn't help but give into it. I was mad at Emma for throwing me in, and I was also mad at myself for caving so quickly, but with Emma I can never stay mad._

_In one quick motion she kissed me once more. When our contact faded, I placed my forehead onto hers and we stood there, being made fun of by Henry and Zelena who proceeded to tell us we had cooties. She went for one more kiss and so did I, but when the gap was almost closed I pulled back and splashed her._

_"What the hell! I thought we were having a moment." She hissed, doing the same exact thing I did a couple minutes ago and wiped at her face._

_"Payback’s a bitch Emma." I whispered. I waddled through the cold water and joined Henry and Zelena, leaving Emma behind baffled._

_When Emma finally got over the betrayal, she joined our group and we all commenced in a game of chicken. I was perched on Emma’s shoulders, careful not to put too much strain on her body, and Henry sat on Zelena’s neck. Of course because I didn’t want to put too much pressure on Emma, Henry easily pushed us over and Zelena and Henry took advantage of the situation to gloat._

_“Yeah yeah, whatever little man. We let you win.” Emma taunted._

_“Nah uh.” He called._

_“Yah huh.” They argued back and forth for a little bit as Zelena and I stood back and watched it all unfold. Emma snatched Henry in a familiar move used on me and hurled him across the water. The action pulled a squeal from Henry as he landed back in the water._

_“Emma!” I berated._

_“What? He’s fiiiine.”_

_“Again!” Henry shouted._

_“See! Fine” She responded, gesturing to the happy little boy who wadded back to her._

_“You were right.” Zelena whispered from beside me. “I love her.” She snickered._

_“I love her too.”  
_____

  
It was currently October 31th and Henry would not stop talking about Halloween. As soon as he woke up he asked if he could have candy for breakfast.

“No mijo. You know that’s bad for your teeth.” He scoots his chair into the table with a disappointed look on his face and Emma chuckles into her coffee.

“Cheer up kid. Only ten more years and you can do whatever you want.” Henry begins to count on his fingers and groans.

“That’s like forever dude.” I raise my eyes at Emma and she just takes a sip of her coffee.

“Welcome to the real world kid. It sucks.”

“Don’t tell him that.” I reprimand bringing Henry his Mickey Mouse waffles. He grabs the powder sugar container off the table and sprinkles a little bit onto his waffles before he began to stuff his face, sending powdered sugar everywhere.

“Like mother like son.” I mutter taking a sip of my coffee. Emma hears my comment and chooses to say nothing. Instead she gets up, standing behind Henry, and gives me the finger. Not expecting that to be Emma’s reaction I choke on my coffee both inhaling and somehow also spewing the coffee. 

“Momma what’s wrong?” He asks with a mouth full of waffle.

My nose burns from the coffee and I struggle to find a way to breathe properly. In the back stands Emma wheezing. She’s hunched over, holding her stomach as she laughs. I clutch the table desperately tying to get my breathing under control. The burning sensation in my nose begins to die down and the only evidence of my mishap is the coffee spilt on the table. I wipe at my mouth and blink away the tears that painfully occupied my eyes.

“I’m glad you thought that was funny Miss. Swan. It’ll be even funnier when you sleep on the couch tonight.” I mock and force a sarcastic laugh her way.

She quickly jerks up wiping the tears from her eyes and walks my way, placing her hands on my arms. “Hey now. Slow down there. I’m sorry I laughed.”

“I’m sorry you laughed too.” I get my arms out from under hers and I walk into the kitchen to grab some paper towels and pour myself another cup of coffee, wiping the table as I take a small sip careful not to have another accident.  
“Henry in a couple of hours it’s going to be time to get ready, okay? And aunty Zee is gonna come over and we’re all gonna go trick or treating okay?”

He nods vigorously as he finishes off the last of his waffles and hops out the chair and runs into the playroom.

“Kid you left- forget it.” Emma begrudgingly grabs his plate and throws it in the trash. Tiredly she yawns and finds a place to sit on the couch with her cough and sigh. “When do you wanna start getting him ready hot stuff?”

“Don’t try to sweet talk me Emma. You’re sleeping on the couch.” I scrunch my nose and settle into the groove next to Emma, laying my head on her shoulder. “I was thinking we get ready around 5:30, get Henry ready at six and meet at Zelena at 7?”

“Sounds good. Ya know it’s kinda weird that she lives in my old house. She like brought me upstairs and asked me if it brought back any dirty memories. Seriously something is wrong with her.” She snorts.

“I know. She’s very blunt.”

“That’s sugarcoating it.” She takes a sip of her coffee and then sets it down on the table before turning to face me. “Is she bringing Belle?”

I shake my head and walk towards the other room before really answering Emma. “No, Belle has work again.”

“Again? She’s a freakin librarian. What could possibly need to be done on Halloween?” I grumble.

“Apparently they’re hosting a Halloween party for the kids?”

“Whaccccckkkk.” She says, groaning through her fingers

____

“Henry Lets go! You’ve been standing in front of your mirror for forever. Draw the scar and lets go!” Emma calls from the bottom of the stairs. She waits a couple more seconds for an answer and when she doesn’t receive one she starts making her way up the stairs, until Henry finally comes bounding down the stairs. “Jesus kid what took you so long?” She groans.

“You can’t rush perfection.” He says coolly wiping his hair out his face so you could visibly see his scar. I stand with my mouth agape, staring at Emma and she just shrugs.

“Don’t look at me. That’s a hundred percent you right there.” She adds nonchalantly. My lips form into a thin line and I furrow my brows together.

“Looking good mijo now let’s go before Zelena leaves us and you know she will.” Henry agrees, knowing that all too well, heads out the door and bolts over to Zelena who’s already standing on the sidewalk.

“Looking sexy there Slytherin.” She calls.

“Flattery will get you nowhere with her Zelena. Nice Ravenclaw tie.” Emma comments and Zelena holds up her tie as if it’s a fashion show and waves it around.

“What about me aunty?” Henry beams up with pride showing off his scar and Zelena cups his face and squishes it.

“Oh and what a wonderful Gyriffindor you make.” She coos causing the little boy to giggle with excitement.

Zelena looks up at Emma pretending to throw up in her mouth before complimenting her. “Cute Hufflepuff look.”

“Bite me.” Emma snarks.

“Okay, lets get a move on.” I call, initiating a truce between the childish friends.   
____

Henry skips ahead as we strut down the street uttering friendly ‘how are yous’ to passing trick or treaters and their parents in the chilly night air.

“So how are things going with the librarian?” Emma teases, childishly sticking her tongue out at the the redhead.

“Her name’s Belle and you know that, and things are going really great.”

“You’re welcome.” The blonde sings invoking a confused response from Zelena and myself.

“What do you mean you’re welcome?” We ask in unison.

“You were gifted with the grace of living next to lesbians. You also live in a house where a certain lesbian once resided. Our energy happened to flow through you.” She adds, matter of factly. Her arms clasped behind her back as she skips over to Henry, throwing a wink over her shoulder.

“Don’t mind her, she has the mental state of a six year old.” I joke.

“Then that makes you a pedophile.” She remarks quickly as if she had been holding onto that joke for a while, waiting for the perfect chance to use it. I give a slight nudge to her ribs as we meet Emma who’s standing at the edge of someone’s lawn eating a snickers as she watches Henry bounce up the stairs to the house.

“Do you always steal candy from six year olds?” I inquire, crossing my arms awaiting a response.

“When the situation calls for it? Yes.” She goes for another bite not paying any regard to the pale arm that reaches out for the candy bar, snatching it out of her hand. Zelena smirks as she finishes off the bar leaving Emma to stand there looking like a kicked puppy. Hurt expressed all over her face.

Henry flies down the lawn oblivious to his other mother’s hurt state and excitedly shows off the candy he received before walking off to the next house.

“So this isn’t one of your flings we so joyfully witnessed? No more sending crying boys home?”

Now it’s Zelena’s turn to nudge me as Emma lets out a boisterous laugh. “No you twat. I really like her. She’s so funny and she’s bloody brilliant. Not like those pinheads I shagged. There’s something she just radiates and I don’t know how to explain it.” She explains.

“That’s called big dick energy.” Emma states.

“Excuse me what?” I gasp. Zelena looking doubly confused.

“It’s something the kids nowadays say. Keep up you old hags. It means like she radiates power and like sexiness. I think.” She shrugs.

“I don’t think you know what it means.” I comment. Emma waves me off after she insists that that’s what it means and the conversation continues.

“Well she’s just amazing and she’s great with kids.”

“Whoa whoa whoa. You’re serious? You’ve actually fallen for this girl?” Emma shouts grabbing Henry’s attention as we walk up the patio of the next house. He stands and stares for a quick second before continuing his journey up the stairs.

“Yeah. I’m not joking man. It’s only been like two months but it’s my first two months in years. She’s got such a big heart and I’m honestly so attracted to it. She’s unbelievable and good God that woman is incredible in bed? You’d think the gods themselves were making you come.”

“Whoa now. A little too much information sister.” Emma says, waving her arms in an X in attempt to end the conversation.

“Anyway. I just really care for her ya know? In a way I’ve never even cared for anyone before.”

“Hey? What are we? Chopped up cats?” Emma asks, feigning offense.

“Emma. Stop saying that. It’s chopped liver you idiot.” I hiss, praying none of the people passing by heard Emma’s crude comment.

“I’m not shagging you am I? Look I really like her you guys. I don’t want to mess this up.” She replies with a genuine sincerity to her voice.

“That’s wonderful Zelena. We love Belle and Henry adores her.” I say confidently, bringing a smile to her face.

“What a nerd.” Emma chides.

It’s evident that Zelena’s had enough of Emma’s jokes because she takes off her sneaker and chucks it at Emma. Before Henry makes it down from the next house Emma’s already halfway down the sidewalk trying to dodge Zelena’s grasp. Henry gazes up at me confused before he just shrugs and we continue to make our way to the next houses leaving Emma and Zelena be. As we near the last house on the block I can see Emma bounding straight for us, Zelena close behind, both doing their best to avoid tripping on their cloaks. Just when I thought Emma was going to keep coming at us her foot catches her cloak and Emma begins her decent to the floor. Emma’s body meets the ground with a loud thud and all you can hear is the sound of Zelena’s cackle in the darkness. She comes jogging up to us wheezing, placing her hands on her knees hovering over Emma and wiping under her eyes. Despite the glare Emma gave, Henry and I both joined in on the laugh as Emma pushes up off the floor wiping her hands on the cloak.

“Yeah yeah, laugh it up chuckles.” She sneers and starts to walk in the direction of home, leaving us to laugh amongst ourselves. After we finally collect ourselves we catch up to Emma and kiss up to her.

“Traitors.” Which was all she said the entire walk home.

___

_At one point one of the people handing out candies at a house on our way home thought we were a cult and refused to give Henry any candy, which in return made Henry upset and heaven forbid someone makes Zelena’s little monster upset._

_Zelena ended up marching right up to the man in the house and although I have no idea what she said to him I know it scared the Holy Spirit out of him. She grabbed him by his shirt and got so close to his face, awkwardly whispering in his ear. When she let go he apologized to Henry. And dumped the majority of his bag into Henry’s pumpkin basket._

____

When we arrive home it’s about nine thirty and we all take off our cloaks off to reveal our more comfy clothes and we kick off our shoes. After we’re all comfortable Henry, Emma and Zelena occupy the living room as they sort through Henry’s candies, placing each brand of candy in separate piles. I then take on the responsibility to cook dinner for everyone, and begin to prepare dinner at once in the kitchen. A few minutes later as I was standing in the pantry looking for the pasta noodles Emma appears behind me with a smirk plastered on her face.

“Hello dear.” I say in response to the smile.

“How much for a kiss?” She asks goofily, her hands behind her back.

“What?” I ask, attempting to peer behind her back with no luck.

“I said how much for a kiss.”

After a brief moment of fake contemplation that seems to have pleased Emma, I answer. “A million dollars.”

Emma’s smile fades and she pulls a candy bar from behind her back. “I only have a hundred grand.” She refers back to the candy and I giggle.

“I guess that’ll do.” When a smile reappears on her face Emma’s arms are already around my waist. Her lips finding their way to mine. Feeling Emma’s laugh vibrate against my lips somehow made the moment so much better. My arms wrap around her neck and the kiss deepens. Emma’s hands take a break from my waist for a brief moment to shut the pantry door behind us and then once again they find their rightful place. She backs me against the shelves, and her hand snakes into my shirt. My body shivers as her cold hands make contact with my bare back.

It doesn’t take long for us to get carried away in the moment and I wrap my legs around Emma as her body presses me against the wall for support. Emma’s hands tangle their way through my hair as the kiss deepens. The moment seems to last forever, just my body entangled in Emma’s doing a dance we’ve so rarely had the chance to put into play, but the moment ends when we hear the door open and I’m face to face with Zelena with my body still against the wall. Emma’s face grows pinker and Zelena just looks at us with the biggest shit eating grin. Embarrassment was plastered over both our faces. Emma pulls her hands out of my hair and she lets me slide off the wall. Brushing my clothes down I clear my throat in attempt to rectify the situation but nothing came out.

Zelena, with a smile still pasted on her face, spoke. “Whatcha doin.” She asks rocking on the heels of her feet.

“Looking for pasta obviously.” Emma answers defensively.

I run my fingers through my hair in attempt to hide the previous act before stepping outside the pantry alongside Emma. Emma points at Zelena and then me before pointing to the kitchen and mutters, “I’m just gonna uh go finish the macaroni” and scurries into the kitchen.

Zelena laughs and gives me a knowing look with raised eyebrows that send blood rushing to my face.

“It’s not funny.”

“Itttt’s a little bit funny.”  
  
After we awkwardly fix dinner for everybody we eat in our assigned seats, Zelena to my right Emma to the left and Henry next to Emma. We enjoy a light meal of macaroni and cheese with broccoli with minimal looks from Zelena. The way Zelena jumps in the middle of the meal made it obvious Emma kicked her. I take a sip of wine to mask the smirk that began to grow across my face. Emma reaches across the table and intertwines our hands together as we all finish the last of our meals.

Zelena ends up staying over for about an hour after dinner watching ‘It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown’ and drinking my special occasion cider with us. After she leaves Henry has a couple pieces of candy and then goes up stairs to take a shower giving us the opportunity to clean up the mess and wash the dishes in time for us to read to Henry before bed, but only after I made sure he brushed his teeth. When I was finally finished reading and Henry was all tucked in we made our way into the bedroom and we got ready for the night. Since I have a nightly face routine Emma finishes before me and leaves the room.

When I finally finish all that needed to be done I make my way down the steps to see Emma throwing sheets over the couch. I was confused at first, my lips pursed as I wonder why she’s making a bed downstairs until I remember my earlier words. Coming down the steps I call to her. “I was just joking Emma. Come up to bed.”

“No. I’m honoring your word.” She says smiling at me like it’s no big deal. “What you say is very important to me and I always want you to feel heard.

“I’m glad you heard me but please come to bed.” I beg.

Emma shakes her head and lays down the pillows and her throw blanket, throwing a playful wink over her shoulder. I walk over to her “bed” and I pull her down to sit and cuddle. We sit in silence for awhile just enjoying each other’s company as Emma runs her fingers up and down my arm. A little into the cuddle Emma turns on the TV and just presses play from the DVR and an unknown movie plays before us and we just watch our attention drifting from each other and to the movie periodically. This goes on for the majority of the movie until Emma grabs the remote and mutes the TV.

“Hey Regina?”

“Yes dear?” I answer quietly, my attention still mainly on the TV in front of us.

“What do think about a baby?

“A baby? A baby what?” I ask, taken aback by the question. My focus on the TV was quickly diverted and all my focus was thrust upon Emma who was calmly sitting, her back pressed against the arm of the couch, her face still watching the movie. One arm resting on the arm of the couch and the other still stroking my arm.

“Like adopting another baby.” She said matter of factly. She turns her gaze to me and looks me dead in the eyes and cups my cheek. “I want to adopt another baby with you.”

I don’t know why but I just feel like crying. Something about someone wanting to go through the nightly wake up calls, the fevers, the spit up and the tantrums again with me just baffles me. My eyes well up with tears and I just nod. I didn’t really know what to say because we’ve never discussed adopting more than one kid before, so I sat there at a loss for words just staring at Emma. I felt my heart start to race and my breathing became faster, unsure of what to do in the situation.

“You’re a great mother Regina and I want to raise a daughter with you. Someone who can grow up to be just like you. To be the light in some poor little boy or girl’s life and just change their life. I truly believe we’re raising Henry right and with Zelena here all the time, Henry practically has three moms. He’s growing up learning how to treat women and having a father isn’t as important as everyone thinks it is.” Her hand is still placed on my cheek and she kissed my nose. “I never had a father and I turned out great. Ingrid was a single mother and she managed to teach me the important things about life and I think we can give that to another child. If Henry ever needs to talk to a man, we have David. Raising two beautiful amazing children with you is going to be the ultimate adventure Regina and I can’t wait.”

Emma wraps her arms around me and I just silently cry into her chest as she rubs my back. I was so blindsided by that question that I never realized how much I wanted to do this again with Emma. I peer up at Emma who’s looking at me like I’m her entire world and I just know this is the right choice.

“Let’s name her Hope. That whole time while you were in the hospital the amount of hope I had was always changing. Some days were better than others. But with you being back, I have so much hope for the future. With you here, I’m always going to have hope. We’re always going to have her. She will always be a constant reminder of hope, despite how cheesy it sounds. You’ve given me a new appreciation of hope. I was never a fan of hope speeches, especially from Mary Margaret.” I add, pulling a slight chuckle out of Emma. “But you, after everything I’ve been through, that we’ve been through. You’ve given it so much meaning and I’d like to think that’s something we’re going to pass on to Henry, and now Hope.”

“Hope Swan-Mills. I like it.” Emma states. I know Emma’s crying, even though it was hard to see, but I knew when the reflection of the movie began to fall down her face until it disappeared. She lays her head down on the pillows and I snuggle back into her neck and she places a soft kiss on my forehead and we fall asleep there. In a make shift bed with each other and hope for the future.


End file.
